


Hearth and Fang

by Ventadour



Series: From A Gentler Beginning [2]
Category: Vampire Knight (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:07:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27892030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ventadour/pseuds/Ventadour
Summary: In a time absent the awakening of the Kuran Ancestor, bereft of the deaths of the Kuran and Kiryu, the world spins on from a gentler beginning. But even from a gentler beginning, elements of vampiric society and the hunter’s association have no desire to see forward progress between the species. As the heiress of the prominent Kuran family, Yuuki Kuran has endorsed the recently reopened Cross Academy for her adoptive uncle. Bearing aloft his dream of a world where vampires and humans can coexist in the open, she steps out into a more cynical world than she imagined. She is joined by her childhood friend Zero Kiryu, the favored son of the famous Kiryu vampire hunters, who was raised alongside an infirm and unheard-of twin to safeguard humans against vampiric predation.In the wake of an attack on Cross Academy, its supporters must bear out the consequences of their involvement.This is the direct sequel toSnowy Mountains and Ocean Roses.
Relationships: Cross Yuuki/Kiryuu Zero, Kiryuu Ichiru/Kurenai Maria
Series: From A Gentler Beginning [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1998787
Comments: 14
Kudos: 21





	1. Growing Pains

It had only been a few days since Yuuki bit Zero, and the process of his transformation into a vampire had reached an especially unpleasant phase. Because his body was badly damaged before she bit him, the transformation was by necessity taking place quickly. Ordinarily they might have staved it off with hemothaumaturgy if they really wanted to, but there was a serious concern that it would simply put him in danger of starving before he even had the equipment to process the food he needed. The best thing to do, then, was just to deal with it.

Since she was uninjured, Yuuki ended up having to return to prefect duties and class. It left her feeling guilty and quite alone; it hadn't occurred to her exactly how much time Zero committed to simply keeping her company until he wasn't able to do it for a while. On top of that, whenever she had to work with Ichiru, he glared daggers at her. She didn't know what to do about that, but she was doing her best to keep Zero caught up with what they were doing in classes.

When she saw Yuuki going it alone in their shared Day classes, Sayori had fallen in with her as seamlessly as if they had been friends for years. In spite of herself, Yuuki couldn't help but be awed at the quiet gutsiness that Sayori had in the face of awful things happening.

"There are always people who will benefit from holding back positive progress. I trust Chairman Cross's judgment," Sayori had said about the attack, just before they parted for the evening.

Yuuki sighed, walking down the Sun bridge towards Kaien's home. It was an easy thing to say. Was there anything at all that she could do to make it easier? The sort of person who was likely to be opposed to the reconciliation of man and vampire... were they even somebody who could be 'defeated' with words? And they still didn't know who was coming after her so aggressively. It had to be somebody her mother knew, but she was so worked up about Zero in the immediate aftermath that she had forgotten to tell anybody about the things he'd said. She'd have to do that tonight.

She opened the front door. At first Yuuki thought that she was smelling Zero, but she realized quickly that no, somebody was just cooking one of her favorite human foods. She tugged her shoes off next to the door and padded down the hall to poke her head into the kitchen.

There was Kaien in one of his frilly, colorful aprons, working on a pork stir fry. He glanced back at her. "Ah! Yuuki, you're in time for dinner. Well, I know you don't need this kind of food, but you're welcome to join us in a bit. I'm surrounded by people who don't eat my cooking that much, so it's a real treat to get to serve guests that appreciate my culinary genius!"

In spite of the gloom that hung over her, Yuuki couldn't help but smile. "It smells perfect, Uncle Cross. If there's enough for somebody who doesn't need it, I'll definitely have a plate. Um... should I take some to Zero, too?"

"Ah..." Kaien's face fell. "Well, you see..."

Yuuki felt like the bottom of her stomach had dropped out. Quickly, she asked, "Nothing's happened, has it?"

"No! No, he's fine, it's just that..." Kaien raised two fingers to his mouth and curled them outward, imitating tusks or fangs. "His fangs started coming in this afternoon, so he's _very_ cranky. I have a couple of things for him, but I think it's better if you take them."

She frowned, tilting her head to the side questioningly. "Is he really so cranky you can't get near him?"

Kaien smiled sheepishly, and admitted, "I may have joked that he could suck my blood."

Yuuki pressed a hand to her face in exasperation. "Uncle, you _didn't_..."

Kaien turned back to his frying pan. "I know, I know... I didn't think it would get that big a rise out of him. He threw your slippers at me."

Heaving a great sigh, she asked, "What do you need me to take him?"

"He's not going to be able to keep anything solid down for a little while, but I made a thermos of salt broth for him to drink. There's also an insulated ice pack filled up for him in the freezer," Kaien replied.

Yuuki plucked the thermos off of the countertop and searched the freezer for a moment, resting the ice pack in the top of her bag. "Isn't there anything else we can do about the pain?"

"Medicine dosage is tricky while he's in this state, so it's safer to stick to the basics," Kaien said, sounding apologetic.

"Couldn't we just give him a human dose? It might not work as well, but it's better than nothing," Yuuki suggested.

"If he's bad enough that he asks for it, I'll help you sort it out," Kaien replied.

Yuuki nodded, and left. She climbed the staircase and took the first door to the left.

The room that they'd been sharing in the Chairman's manor was among the interior-facing rooms that didn't have any windows. It was dark without a lamp on, and Zero's eyesight had been growing sufficiently sensitive that natural daylight was something he had to ease into in order to tolerate it comfortably. A spacious four poster bed ate up most of the floorspace. A squat dresser was pushed up against the wall immediately to the right of the door, leaving just enough space for a bedside table and room to walk and not much else.

Across from the bed, against the center of the opposite wall, was a small wooden wardrobe. Yuuki had relocated belongings for each of them there.

Zero had mended enough that he could move around without suffering for it if he wanted, but he was still achy and occasionally feverish. He probably would have wandered off to classes in spite of his condition, if he hadn't been forbidden from doing so on the basis that he might run out of control and bite somebody if the transformation he was going through didn't finish while he was reasonably isolated.

At that particular moment he had the pillows stacked behind him and sat upright, his eyes shut and a heavy blanket draped over his shoulders. A scattering of homework in varying states of completion occupied the spot that Yuuki usually did, along with a few different carelessly discarded writing implements.

Yuuki kicked the slipper that was still beside the door over by the bed, shutting the door behind her and depositing her bag by the wardrobe. A piece of paper was crumpled into a ball by the door, but she left it alone for now. She moved over to Zero's side of the bed, putting the thermos full of broth down on it. The clinking of ice in the cold pack she carried seemed to be what triggered him to pay attention to Yuuki, though. His eyes halfway opened, drifting from Yuuki's face to the object in her hand.

She waved at him, sitting down on the edge of the bed and reaching over to touch his forehead. Sweaty, but whatever fever he had been coping with had already broken. Zero sighed in what Yuuki judged to be an annoyed manner, but she suspected it had more to do with his body than with anything she was doing.

"How're you feeling?" she asked.

Zero grunted.

"That bad?"

He pointed at his mouth, then crossed both hands in a "stop" signal.

"It hurts to talk?" Yuuki guessed.

Zero hummed affirmatively.

Yuuki raised the ice pack to rest against his face and held it there. He closed his eyes and issued a sigh that was _definitely_ relief. "I'm sorry. I brought you some broth if you think you can manage to drink something."

In response, Zero pulled a pad of paper across the bed and wrote: Maybe later.

"Okay," Yuuki said. "Is there anything I can get you?"

He shook his head.

Yuuki nodded. "Have you thought any more about winter break?"

Zero scribbled something down again: Yes. But it isn't useful to talk about.

"Talking to me... isn't useful?" Yuuki asked, dejectedly.

Zero shook his head rapidly and started writing again. His response read: _It isn't possible to surprise Yuuki with something that I talk to her about._

"Ohh..." Yuuki stared at the sheet of paper Zero was writing on. If he hadn't told her straight out, she wouldn't have guessed it. But thinking about it, she supposed that he really _was_ that type of person. If the sorts of things he had to **say** when he opened up were so sweet, then his idea of a secret date... the idea dazzled her mind. She pushed it out of her imagination, desperate not to spoil what he came up with with elaborate fantasies of how it might happen.

"Zero," she said, looking up into his eyes. "There's something I'd like to do in specific, if it's okay. I wouldn't want to say no to your surprise, but if we can do this too...

He tilted his head to one side and raised his eyebrows. She took that as a signal to continue.

"I want to dress up and go dancing with you, like we did at the soirée. Maybe a nice dinner out, too. Just... a normal date," Yuuki said.

Zero lowered the ice pack from his face. At first Yuuki thought he might refuse; it was exactly the sort of situation that was too exposed for him. Instead he cupped her face in his hand and inclined his head to rest his forehead against hers. If not for the fact that he was in pain, she was sure he would have kissed her.

Yuuki planted the tiniest, most careful kiss against his lips and drew away. She said, "I'm looking forward to it. And maybe I'll figure out a surprise to put together for you, too."

A jingling noise from down below sounded through the halls of the manor. Kaien was ringing a dinner bell.

"I have to go, I'm expected downstairs," Yuuki said. She rose from the bed and made for the door, pausing a moment to collect the crumpled piece of paper by the wardrobe. Unfolding it, she found the word **LEAVE** scrawled angrily across the whole of the sheet. She raised her eyebrows and turned to Zero, displaying the sign.

Zero pointed towards the floor and shrugged. Yuuki assumed he was trying to indicate Kaien.

"Be nice to him," Yuuki scolded him, depositing the paper in a small waste bin by the door. "You were the one that told me he acts goofy when he's worried, weren't you? I know you're having a bad time, but uncle doesn't deserve that."

He made a sour face, but nodded.

But just as she was about to step through the door...

"Yuuki," Zero said. His voice was strained, the discomfort he experienced for talking made plain on his face when he decided to do it anyway. His face was flushed, and she couldn't tell if he was blushing just the smallest amount or if that was the result of on-again-off-again fever.

Yuuki paused in the doorway, turning back towards him. "Zero? Don't talk if it hurts that much."

He shook his head. "Me, too."

When she didn't seem to understand what he meant, Zero issued a frustrated sigh. He said, "I'm looking forward to it, too."

Yuuki beamed at him. Not wanting to prompt him to speak any further, she let her smile speak for itself and wiggled her fingers in a parting wave before exiting the room.

Zero pressed the ice pack to his face and began to collect the items scattered about the bed, stacking them neatly atop the dresser before collecting the thermos and staring at it. He lifted it to his nose and sniffed. Nothing at all, but he twisted the cap off, smelled it, and closed it again. That wasn't where the smell had been coming from, which was just about enough to tell him how far along he was.

He poured a glass of water and dropped one of the blood tablets that had been left for him in. The scent of it was... strange, diluted. There was more than one flavoring there, but none of them were strong enough to overpower the others or come out as particularly distinct. If he had to describe it in human terms, he would probably say that it was like a tin of lukewarm beans.

The scent trail that crisscrossed the room wasn't so different from what was in the thermos Yuuki had brought him. It had a stronger odor to it, and to compare the two was to profoundly understate how much better Yuuki herself had smelled. The scent that had become an everyday experience blended with what he could only describe as the perfected incarnation of his own favorite food, which didn't really exist anywhere in this world.

He sipped at the tinted water. Contact with the cool fluid immediately aggravated the teeth that were changing, drawing out a pained grunt. If Zero were a less disciplined person, he probably wouldn't bother trying to drink at all until that settled down. The taste was unremarkable, more boring than as bad as it smelled.

Instead of finishing the glass, Zero just grabbed a tablet and swallowed it whole, slapping the cold pack back against his face and dragging himself lethargically back to bed.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

A while after they had escaped the vicinity of Cross Academy, Elizabeth and Torvald's engine had failed. That wasn't a fatal problem, since they had the ability to manipulate water to begin with, but the act of doing so was draining and so, their trek back towards their home dock had stretched on considerably.

Elizabeth was beginning to suspect that Torvald was faking his relatively poor stamina when he said something that more-or-less confirmed it to her.

"We should take these and run," Torvald said.

"But Lord Rido--"

"Is a lunatic who _might_ not kill us for the delivery of these," Torvald held up the two vials Elizabeth had retrieved.

Elizabeth frowned and looked down at the deck. It was true enough that Rido was temperamental, and that was a part of what made her feel so badly for him. He was unable to coexist with people particularly well, and in the end he had been jailed for eternity by his family. But he was impressively magnanimous when he felt the need to be, and wasn't the type to interfere with anyone who wasn't actively interfering with his desires.

"He could restore the Norgaard name," she answered.

"Could. If he does, it'll only be incidental. Eliza, listen to me," Torvald twitched the vials between his fingers. "If he gets hold of these, there's no containing him anymore. He'll undo the Binding of Mortality and be able to do what he just did in person, anywhere. Even with his psychokinetics limited, his ability to just break things is horrifying, and he has no impulse control."

"Torvald... isn't it sad? Someone who can never leave home, never find their own way. Confining him to that house wasn't mercy, it was just making certain that he would never be anything other than what he was. If you want better for us, can you at least see that he deserves at least that much?" Elizabeth asked, plaintively.

Torvald replaced the vials in the freezer -- they didn't need to go there to keep, it was just safer that way -- and laid back against the edge of the boat. After a moment he curled his hand into a fist and slammed it against the seat beside him. "God **damn** it, Eliza..."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Kaname sat in his temporary room at the Moon dorm. He was not here, in spirit. The form to which he attached himself had squirreled itself away beneath the console of Torvald and Elizabeth's vessel, listening to them in silence. Coming out during the daylight hours to chew through bits of the engine, and in general attempting to decide what to do about them. His first instinct was simply to kill them once he had sufficient information out of them, but now...

Now he had _two_ names. Rido, and Norgaard. Neither were familiar to him in the slightest, but what intrigued him the most was the fact that this pair acting as cat's paws were divided on whether or not to remain with their employer. That presented an opportunity, but only if he was able to contact the brother alone.

Ultimately it was down to whether or not they could be split apart, drawn away to separate and opposed courses. If not, making the attempt would be a waste of his time and expose the amount of information he'd acquired. If so however, he would have a powerful bargaining chip. But what about this 'Binding of Mortality'? Not to mention the **ability** that their master was said to have.

"You're making some very strange faces there," Lars said. He was lying in a cot across the room from Kaname's own bed; a rigid and uncomfortable thing meant to keep him reasonably still while his spinal injury healed.

"I'm hearing some very strange things there," Kaname replied.

Lars frowned. "You... mean 'there' literally, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything I can do?" Lars asked.

"Once we get moving again, yes. Or more accurately, once we're free to head 'home'. My family's records are rather extensive and I have no desire to sort through them myself, even if I multiply my body to accelerate the work," Kaname said.

"Why your family's records? Don't you have any field work you need done?"

"Well... if you _insist_ on something more active, I need someone to trace the ownership of a boat," Kaname said.

"T-that sounds even more boring..."

Kaname nodded, gravely.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It was awkward to sit at the dinner table with Kaien, Shiro, and Ylva. As far back as Yuuki could remember, they had been together in a way like this, only... they weren't seated in positions of equality like this! She, her brother, Ichiru, and Zero had always been at a separate table, or at the least at the far end of the table from the adults. Today she sat across from Ylva, with Kaien at the head of the table on her right. The conversation that passed between them was mostly hunter things, and reminiscing on similar subjects.

Occasionally, Kaien would draw her into the discussion with an embarrassing anecdote about something she and the others had done while under his roof. Yuuki tried to ignore it, but it was hard to keep herself from blushing. For instance, the time they decided to slide down the stairs on an old rug they found in the attic. To say nothing of their exploration _of_ the attic!

"Excuse me... there's something I've been wondering," Yuuki interjected, after a little while. Everyone looked at her, waiting to hear what she had to say. "After I bit Zero, his gun changed. It started growing vines, and I had to pull it out of his hands to get it to stop. What happened? Why did it do that? I know he controlled some of it, but it was really frightening..."

"Stage Tva," Shiro said.

"His bonded weapon evolved in response to an increase in available qi," Ylva clarified further.

Yuuki looked towards Kaien for a more robust explanation. He smiled faintly, and took a pen out of his pocket.

Holding up the pen, Kaien explained, "Imagine that this is a bonded weapon. It has the ability 'to write', but it doesn't actually have any ink of its own. In order to produce ink, you need to feed it energy. Some bonded weapons will drink blood from their wielders directly, but even if they don't, they all have the property of 'life absorption' that can be found in vampires who aren't physically mature yet. In order to produce ink, I need to feed my qi into the weapon."

"Would you please hold this pen in the air? Telekinetically, that is," he requested.

Yuuki looked confused, but complied.

"When you hover something like this," Kaien let go of the pen and allowed it to hang there unaided. "The force that you're using to power it is qi. The process of putting qi into a bonded weapon is similar. It's not easily articulable, but you understand how to make it happen. Just like a vampire grows in power as they age, hunters grow in power. Because our bodies can only handle a limited amount of directly expressed power, our bonded weapons take on the burden once we reach certain thresholds and attain an understanding with them. We categorize these thresholds as stages. Stage noll is where novice hunters usually are, and stage ett is where somebody of Zero's power sits."

"So when I bit Zero, he crossed one of these thresholds?" Yuuki wondered.

Kaien nodded, plucking his pen from her telekinetic grip and pocketing it. "Zero's circumstances are similar to Ylva's, and to my own. Even at birth, he was 'powerful'. Bloody Rose has a long history and was already stage ett when he received it, but a lot of hunters his age wouldn't be able to fuel it safely for long. While a vampire needs blood to accumulate a healthy amount of qi, the amount available to even formerly human vampires is leaps and bounds ahead of a typical hunter. When you're working from a foundation like Zero, well..."

"Scary!" he exclaimed, abruptly. "The result is **really really scary**! And Zero already has a glare like knives! How will I survive teasing my nephew from now on?!"

Yuuki snorted and shook her head. "Maybe if you don't tease him when he's going through something difficult, he'll go a little easier on you."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It was just after midnight when Yuuki returned to the guest room. She had about as much energy left in her as a wet noodle, and she was starting to think she needed to request a new prefect out of the Night class. Takuma, maybe? No... he already took a lot on his shoulders voluntarily. He was her second-in-command, but that meant his duties were quite wide as-is. Hanabusa? He might get carried away. Senri and Rima had a career. Of her inner circle, that left Akatsuki, Ruka, and Seiren. Those she had met at school were Claudia and Maria.

She hummed thoughtfully as she changed into her pajamas.

Passing by the dresser on the way to bed, Yuuki took notice of the glass of water that stood there. She hadn't done that... all of her eating had been done elsewhere tonight. Even though he had recuperated enough that it wasn't unsafe to drink his blood, Yuuki wasn't willing to feed off of Zero until his fangs had come in and she was able to get some of her blood in his system. Probably a bit more than was strictly necessary. She looked towards him.

The ice pack she had brought had to have mostly melted by now, and Zero had discarded the pen and pad that he was using to communicate with while his mouth was hurting. What Yuuki assumed was the sash off of a dressing gown had been repurposed into a blindfold, and in that particular moment he held the ice pack against his chest, which was rising and falling rapidly. Once she drew closer she could tell how labored his breathing was, but he was absolutely making a deliberate effort to keep it from being too visible.

"Zero," Yuuki murmured, just to make certain that he knew she was there and moving around him. He didn't respond, but when Yuuki took the useless ice pack away from him he didn't resist. His hands curled against his chest, stopping shy of becoming fists. How long had he been feeling this way...?

She pushed at the makeshift blindfold, trying to raise it above Zero's eyes. A glint of red illuminated his face strangely for a moment and, suspecting that he didn't particularly want to face that just now, Yuuki re-adjusted it so that the light underneath was concealed again. Sliding into bed beside him, Yuuki snuggled up close to Zero and wrapped her arms around his neck, winding her fingers through his hair comfortingly.

Zero turned onto his side and wrapped his arms around Yuuki, inclining his head a little. It wasn't the tearing, stabbing pains of when his arms and lung were healing that was troubling him now. It was a dull, steady throb that permeated his being. It was, he imagined, how it would feel if his digestive system had to be regrown. In this case however, it would be more accurate to say that he was growing a digestive system he didn't have in the first place. This was one of the great agonies of the process of turning into a formerly human vampire; a human is not equipped to safely derive power from blood.

On top of that, he was ravenously hungry, but had no outlet yet. His fangs had finished coming in, but at this precise moment they were little better than regular teeth. Even if he craned his neck to bite into Yuuki as he so desperately desired, it would be no different from a human being drinking blood.

"If I told you to go someplace you can actually sleep--" Zero began, his voice strained.

"I'd tell you to stop trying to send me away, Zero," Yuuki answered, stubbornly.

"Okay," Zero said. After a short pause, he added, "Thank you."

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked, lightly rubbing at his scalp.

"What you're doing... it's not half bad," he answered.

Yuuki began to massage Zero's scalp a bit more deliberately and carefully.

"About our break plans. We should stay in town overnight," Zero said. It was perfectly true that he'd been thinking about that, but at the moment he was talking as much to distract himself as anything else. It could've waited.

"O-okay... but I get to take care of lodgings," Yuuki replied.

"That's fine."

Yuuki blinked. She had half-expected some resistance, there. "You don't mind?"

"Why would I?" he wondered.

"Well, sometimes... nevermind," Yuuki said. She supposed he _wasn't_ the sort to get weird about having money spent on him.

"You wanted it to be romantic. All the motels I know are holes," Zero said.

Yuuki blushed furiously. She hadn't really been thinking about it from that angle at all, instead wishing to avoid an abused and neglected apartment that smelled funny. "For this, I just wanted it to be comfortable. I wasn't thinking about..."

"... Ah," Zero murmured in sudden understanding, after not speaking for a while. She was glad to see that it brought some color to his face, too.

Yuuki cleared her throat. "Just leave it to me."

Zero made an affirmative noise. Changing the subject, he said, "My sense of smell is all twisted up."

"How do you mean?" she asked.

Zero hesitated. He craned his neck to situate his head closer to hers, sniffing audibly. "Well... what do I smell like to you?"

Very, very quietly, Yuuki said, "If you're asking what I think you're asking... ginger pork stir fry."

Zero snorted. He had known Yuuki long enough to know her favorite 'human' dish.

"Ze _ro_... don't make fun of me for being honest about my feelings," Yuuki complained.

"Making me laugh isn't being made fun of," Zero replied.

"Tell me how I'm smelling to you right now," Yuuki challenged him.

"Like... an impossibly perfect bowl of salted ramen. With egg," Zero said. It was such a ridiculous thing to say that he couldn't feel too self-conscious about saying it.

Yuuki smiled, trying vainly to ignore the giddy thumping of her heart. "That's not twisted, you just know what you like. But that's a really intimate thing to ask somebody. It's fine with me, but don't ask anybody else."

Zero made a noise that Yuuki interpreted as acknowledgment.

They continued to talk for another hour or so, gaps in the conversation growing longer in measure with their weariness until sleepiness finally outweighed whatever pain that Zero was still feeling.

Yuuki dimly perceived an aborted attempt at a good night kiss by Zero, who was still sufficiently at war with his own instincts that he just couldn't bring himself to push it. She bridged the gap, pecking him lightly on the lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, and hopefully, welcome back!
> 
> No, that chapter count isn't an error. In addition to a new lexicon, I intend to do 39 chapters of Hearth and Fang. Much like Snowy Mountain and Ocean Roses, Hearth and Fang is as much a challenge to myself as it is getting an idea out of my head.
> 
> This first chapter came sooner than I expected it to, but I'm eager to keep this story moving. I'm still undecided on an overall release schedule, though.


	2. I Need You Too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content Warning:** NSFW, sexual content. This chapter contains explicit touching but does not escalate to penetration. If you'd like to skip the more explicitly sexually charged parts, asterisms (those dividing markers I use for transitions; ⁂ ⁂ ⁂) mark the beginning and end of it. Note that the end of it still has a small amount of sexually charged stuff going on in it, because I felt cutting it off below that would be a bit awkward. Normal scene transitions will be handled with * * * in this chapter instead.
> 
> As a note, I am not portraying underage characters here. That hasn't been made explicit previously, but you might have noticed my Cross Academy is structured more like higher education than primary or secondary school. Yuuki, Zero, and their peers are young, but they are adults.

* * *

Yuuki woke to the sound of her name being whispered. She wasn't certain that she hadn't dreamed it at first, until it repeated itself. The warm tickle of his breath close to her ear raised goosebumps along her neck, and helped serve to inform her that she wasn't just dreaming; though as she pointed out to herself as she roused to semi-wakefulness, such sensations had definitely been visitors to her dreams before. She mumbled sleepily and turned over to face Zero properly, somewhat shy of awake enough to make the natural assumption of his purpose until her eyes met his.

He had finally discarded that makeshift blindfold, and his eyes were still fully aglow. Yuuki doubted they had ceased glowing since that trait of vampirism had settled into him, as hungry as he must have been. Rolling from her back onto her side, she rested one hand against his cheek and tilted her neck a little to allow him access if he wanted to take the offer. To her surprise, he didn't.

For a few long moments Zero looked frighteningly ravenous, but staring down at her like that, something softened in his gaze. Instinct must really have been overwhelming him in those moments, she thought.

"What's the matter?" she asked, gently.

"Feels wrong," he replied.

"How's that?"

Zero looked away. "Did you... feel good about moving in on me the way you did the first time?"

It was an unpleasant reminder of what she had sprung on him without so much as asking. Yuuki took a moment to stretch, recognizing that she wasn't going to be getting back to sleep immediately. She sat up against the headboard, and he followed her lead in this. Looking down into her butterfly print pajama bottoms, she said, "No... but that was... I've already told you I was looking forward to it."

"No," he said.

"A-are you telling me what _I_ told **you**?" she asked, absolutely bewildered at this fresh new twist of difficulty from Zero.

"What you said was that you were happy for the romance of it. It's hardly what you seemed to imagine if... I tear into you desperately while you're most of the way to asleep, even with permission," Zero explained.

Yuuki blinked. She pressed her index fingers together rapidly and stared at the wall, her face reddening furiously, "You don't know. Maybe there's still some appeal to something like that for me."

"Is there?"

She gave Zero a light shove and mumbled, "It's not fair to corner me like this when I know you're in pain and need me to relieve it."

Zero made an irritated noise and looked up at the canopy of their bed. "To ask a thing like that... it's not easy for me, either. You don't have to answer."

She chanced a momentary glance at him, before returning her attention fixedly to the wall. Yuuki supposed it was a bit pathetic, really. It wasn't as if they hadn't been at least this intimate before, even if it hadn't involved fangs at the time. But now--! She licked her lips hungrily. Once she'd given him his fill, she could finally...

Slowly, Yuuki lifted her hands to his face, coaxing him to look down and meet her gaze. He looked uncharacteristically nervous to her. She guessed she probably looked the same.

"Do like I did. That first time," she instructed, shyly.

He nodded, taking her hands from his face and surveying her quietly. Yuuki felt like she was being closely analyzed, the way he was staring down at her. But she remembered what it was like when she was figuring out the logistics of what they were doing not so long ago, and remained silent.

Zero raised his hand to Yuuki's neck, skimming the surface of her skin with his fingertips until he reached the cloth of her top. He pressed in a little to preserve the sensation of touch, stopping at the first button. One-handed he undid her top two buttons, exposing her neck and collar and a bit more besides. His fingers lingered against the third button before he seemed to think better of it, instead dipping his head low to kiss her collar.

She shut her eyes, enjoying the new sensation of his fangs nipping carefully at her skin. He drew things out a little longer than she did, experimental nibbles continuing a ways along her collar bone before his attention turned to her throat. Yuuki felt one hand come to rest at the back of her head, the other at her back. She exhaled sharply, a shudder of anticipation shaking her body.

"Zero," she breathed, causing him to pause before he realized she wasn't trying to get his attention.

Yuuki felt engulfed by him. She ran her right hand up his back and to his neck, encouraging him to keep going with a none too subtle squeeze. Her left hand curled against his back, aimless but still serving as a clear marker of her enjoyment.

When the trail of kisses against her throat ended he planted his fangs tentatively against her neck. A quiet little moan of longing escaped her lips the instant before he pierced her skin, and the sharp feeling prompted her to open her eyes, staring hazily at the canopy while the sensation of her life flowing into him lapped at the edges of her consciousness. Yuuki had given blood before, and received blood before, but the context was very different. Sliced wrists or impersonally filled containers, something to offer a helping hand where it was needed but never with this sort of closeness.

Zero released her, the glowing from his eyes dimmed but not extinguished. Melded in more moderation with his natural lavender, they shone faintly magenta instead. He wouldn't have characterized the experience as quite like eating or drinking. It was like having a meal, after a fashion; the flavor matched the scent up to a point, but beyond that it was intoxicatingly like being immersed in the person being bitten. That alone would have been enough to make all of it enthrallingly wonderful, but for him in this moment it was also like a dose of morphine racing through his veins. The pain that had been pulsing in his chest was silenced with the first few droplets.

He had observed to her before that she could have consumed all the blood he would ever produce and not be satisfied, but he wasn't prepared for the reality of it. Withdrawing his fangs from Yuuki's neck was a reluctant act in spite of himself. The puncture wounds disappeared as soon as the intrusion departed, leaving behind only a faint trickle leading away from where they had been.

The smell of blood exposed to open air was potent, and combined with the fact that it was _hers_ made it overpowering. Zero inclined his head further, kissing and licking away what little mess he had left behind. Only once the remaining blood left was a thin stain on his lips did he manage to steady himself. Guiltily, he mumbled, "Difficult to stop."

Yuuki shook her head, and said, "... the rest of the way."

He made a confused noise, so Yuuki grabbed his arm and guided his hand to the first fastened button remaining on her top. His thumb brushed the button, lingering there deliberately until Yuuki nudged him and shot him an inquisitive look. Zero issued a breath of amusement and picked up his pace, parting the garment and pushing it away.

The very moment Yuuki's arms slipped loose, she pushed Zero firmly against the headboard. His eyes widened in surprise as she repositioned, planting herself firmly on his lap. Her lips curled into a mischievous smile, and before he could think to take any reciprocal action she rested her hands against his shoulders. She rubbed back and forth for a moment before slipping her hands down the length of his arms, tracing her thumb along the inside of his arm and delicately grasping his wrists. It purposefully wasn't much of a grip, but it was enough to signal that she wanted control.

She pinned his arms above him in deliberate imitation of what he had done to her some time ago. When he had done the same thing, it was to kiss her fiercely. Yuuki decided she wasn't going to fully imitate that element of their exchange. She wanted to take her time, and so she began by kissing the corner of his lips. As she expected him to, Zero began to turn his head, intending to deepen the kiss that she began.

Yuuki didn't allow it. She moved as he did, planting a kiss against his cheek that brought him to a halt. A little lower and she found the line of his jaw, slowly easing her grasp on his wrists so both their arms could be brought to a mildly more comfortable rest. Only mildly, though-- she wasn't ready to let go yet. It wasn't just the appeal of the act itself, even though the beast inside Yuuki savored the control that she was exercising over the deadly enemy that she had tempted into her bed.

It was also to thoroughly relax him. Yuuki had nothing to fear from Zero biting her, but she doubted that his instincts would be as cooperative as hers if she rushed things. As much as she wanted to inflame _other_ instincts of his, tensing Zero up and biting him the way she had on the bridge would have risked making this a miserable time for him. What Yuuki wanted instead was to make him look forward to the next time, and the next, and the next.

When she reached his neck she began to clumsily leave marks on purpose, small bites without fangs gradually easing Zero into the sensation that was coming. At first this caused him to tense up just like she expected, but each additional love bite that came without drawing blood let him work the knots out of his system just a bit more.

Zero breathed heavily, a combination of willful anticipation mixing uneasily with instinctual trepidation. He should absolutely try to get out from beneath the fangs of this predator, but he just didn't want to. For a moment he shut his eyes, and a singular sharp sigh gently disturbed Yuuki's hair. It was nerve-gratingly difficult to behave himself. His feeding impulses were under control, but it seemed to him that they coexisted in the same 'space' as arousal. Even when they had been on the cusp of going a few steps further than this, he felt less like running out of control. He wondered... was it a facet of his changed body, or was Yuuki simply breaking down his walls either way? For that matter, did it have to be one or the other?

Her fingers slid from around his wrists, falling to his shoulders. Zero didn't move his arms, cracking an eye to look at Yuuki. She was smiling at him in a way that he could only describe as devilishly smug. It wasn't the sort of expression that she usually wore, but it was quite endearing to see.

Yuuki bit her lip, emboldened by the smoldering one-eyed look Zero was giving her. She traced twin paths down his chest with her hands, weighing her wants back and forth. But no... hunger had to come first, she'd been putting it off. Wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing herself against him, Yuuki drew things out by a few more nibbles before finding the spot that struck her as the most tasty and biting down properly.

A pleased grunt rumbled in Zero's throat. He had been bitten by ferals before, of course-- but he had never let them stay long enough to take note of the sensation of having his blood sucked. He wasn't sure how he would characterize the feeling, save that it was pleasantly warm and numbing while still feeling quite dangerous.

So far he had obediently left his hands above him, wrists tilted so the backs of his hands rested against the top. But self-control quickly abandoned him, and Zero had been denied the opportunity to touch for too long already. His left hand came to rest at the back of Yuuki's head, softly encouraging her feeding. The right settled against her side, tracing a path up and back towards the weak spots he'd already discovered along her back.

The motion of fingers at Yuuki's spine put her over the edge of desire, soft shudders rolling across her body. She released his neck, greedily and hastily lapping at the blood that spilled from the puncture wounds, steadily closing but not at the rate that hers had. While waiting for it to mend entirely she lingered in place, eyes turned upwards to meet his, slowly and deliberately cleaning the final droplets that passed beneath her senses.

Yuuki sat up straight, resting with her arms loose around his neck. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. She leaned in and planted a quick kiss to Zero's lips, innocent in a way that none of the rest of their motions had been for a while now. The stickiness of blood clung to each of their lips, providing a moment's more contact and flavor that would have otherwise come and gone in the blink of an eye.

"Feels better?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "My chest isn't on fire anymore."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

She smiled and nodded. Given the time to slow down and think about it, Yuuki was starting to feel a bit more self conscious. "What about the rest of it?"

Impulsively, Yuuki decided she didn't need a verbal answer. She rocked her hips, grinding herself against him through the soft cloth of the pajama bottoms they were both still wearing. A shiver of delight ran down her spine at the sound of Zero's breath hitching, his fingers digging pleasingly into her skin. She had been able to feel him against her since she positioned herself here, and his touch while she drank his blood had encouraged her.

She repeated the motion once more, closing her eyes and drinking in the electric sensation that raced through her body. Zero's hands both slid to her hips, and Yuuki at first imagined that he intended to encourage her. But when she rocked forward for the third time, Zero adjusted his grip and halted her. Her eyes flew open, filled with concern.

"Did I hurt you?" she wondered, puzzled.

"No," Zero said.

"Did I do something wrong?" she followed up, before he could explain.

"No--"

"Did I go too far?"

" **Yuuki** ," Zero said, firmly. She closed her mouth and looked at him, a mixture of expectant and disappointed.

Zero took a moment to catch his breath. In spite of the abrupt, forced stop, Yuuki couldn't help but take enjoyment in the fact that she'd brought him to such a state. Strong enough, as she put it, to face a hurricane unflinching-- but in her hands he was winded and trembling.

"What we've been doing has been nice, but my instincts and senses feel out of control. I'd probably let that go if not for the other problem," he explained.

"Other problem?" she tapped her cheek thoughtfully, trying to imagine what it might be.

Zero nodded. "No protection. We haven't been to town since that last hunt."

"Ohh..." Yuuki hadn't even thought of that. She pouted, resting her hands against his chest and feeling thoroughly awkward. The truth was, she was running a bit wild, too. "A... little more, please."

He shot Yuuki a skeptical look, but didn't decline. She took that as permission to elaborate.

"I-I just want... to get used to this," Yuuki admitted, leaning forward to rest her head against Zero's chest. "We stopped last time because we were both nervous. That's not here this time, and there are things we can do that aren't so risky."

"Tell me the 'something' that you want to do," Zero said.

She rubbed circles along his back with her index finger, trying not to wallow in the awkwardness of an exchange like this. Yuuki raised her eyes just a little, and found his expectant gaze meeting hers. "It's hard to just come right out with something like that. But... Zero is probably feeling something similar, even if he's not saying so. So, it's something like... 'I really wish he'd touch me'."

"Scoot back and turn around," Zero said.

Yuuki made a confused noise, but lifted herself up and turned. She put her back to Zero's chest and looked up at him inquiringly. "Do you prefer things like this?"

Zero shook his head and slid his hands along Yuuki's legs, feeling his way down the outside of her legs. Her lips curled into a smile that she was quite sure would've looked rather silly, but she didn't care. When his hands reached just above her knees he doubled back, crossing to the inside of her thighs and experimentally increasing the pressure of his grip as he went.

"It's not because I prefer it. It's easier for you to teach me this way," he explained.

"Teach you?"

A moment's hesitation came and went. Zero's fingers rose between Yuuki's legs, his index and middle finger tracing an uncertain path along her lips through the layers of fabric that still separated them. It was a clumsy effort, but pleasing enough to Yuuki just to be touched that she moved her hips with his motion to adjust the pressure to her liking. Her mouth parted in a soft whine and she reached back one-handed to coax him into a kiss.

The first brush of their lips was brief, short lived. Yuuki wasn't having that at all, communicating her demand with a squeeze of her hand. The lingering taste of blood touched her tongue and reignited the vividness of her senses during a moment of hunger. Her mouth moved against his desperately and greedily, the thrill of the moment banishing restraint and skill in favor of a natural but clumsy frenzy. Once she consented to part a trail of saliva connected them, breaking when Yuuki re-settled into a more comfortable posture.

His fingers rested firmly against her, but he wasn't moving anymore.

"It's your body, so you know what's best. Put your hand on top of mine and show me what feels good," Zero said.

"Y-you mean..." In spite of the situation, Yuuki couldn't help but blush. It wasn't like she didn't know what worked for her, but there was something curiously troubling about it. She swallowed harshly.

She looked back at him again. "And y-you'll show me w-what..."

Zero smiled unreservedly and snorted in amusement. His left hand departed from her leg to brush some of Yuuki's thoroughly mussed hair out of her eyes. "It's not hard to let you in closer, now that you're already this close. Did you imagine that I wouldn't do such a thing?"

"Well, I definitely _imagined_ that you **would** ," Yuuki admitted, and was pleased to see that lit up his face about as badly as she expected hers was right now. "But the way hunters do things, it's hard to tell what's ordinary for you."

He hummed thoughtfully and replied, "Pain management and de-stressing is important."

She blinked rapidly. "That's... weird, Zero. Hunters are weird."

"... Yeah," he agreed.

Yuuki took a deep breath and laid her hand over Zero's, guiding it away from where it rested with a brief jolt of sensitivity that caused her to twitch involuntarily. She urged Zero's hand beneath her waistband, hesitating once his fingers began to brush her mound. Sensing her unease he rubbed her in a light circle, remaining where she had thus far deliberately allowed him.

"You alright?" he asked.

She nodded. "It's just different. I'm okay, so you can..."

Understanding that she was asking for a bit of a push, Zero pressed a kiss to her neck and inched his hand farther down. She didn't stop him until he touched her vulva, which prompted her to lift his hand lightly and re-assume control. Yuuki moaned softly with the initial contact, the newness of the feeling nearly overwhelming her. Keeping the pressure temporarily light, she used his hand to tease herself with a feather-light touch, urging him up and down the length of her vulva.

He knew to expect heat and moisture, but it was more pronounced than Zero was anticipating. They had been winding each other up relentlessly, he supposed, but it was still an unusual intensity to imagine coming from a person's body. Once she established a pattern for him he took over and began to experiment with gently differing pressures to find something that worked.

"Z-zero," Yuuki gasped, her left hand twisting blindly at the bedsheets pooled around them. She squirmed against him, and when he leaned forward and nibbled experimentally at her ear she squeaked. That was enough noise that he lifted his left hand, laying it against her mouth to muffle her.

That motion acted as a signal to Yuuki to change gears. She stopped him and laid her index and middle finger deliberately across his, guiding his fingers in circles around her clit. With meticulous care she guided him towards it, trying to make sure he got the pressure right-- but the angle was a little too direct, the pressure too firm. She jerked his hand back reflexively.

"Be as gentle as you can, with that spot," she managed, after taking a moment to recover from overstimulation.

Zero made an acknowledging noise. "Do you want me to keep going, or do you need some time?"

"Ah... 'both', but I need to cool off more than I need to heat back up," Yuuki admitted. She laid back against his chest, sighing happily. He nodded, slipping his hand back out above her pajamas.

"Only, it's less fun when I can barely see you," she sat forward and turned, seating herself sideways. "Although that thing with my ear was nice... but you're so hard to read!"

Yuuki prodded Zero in the chest. "You need to make more noise, or at least tell me what you think is nice. The only thing I'm sure was working was the thing you stopped me from doing."

"Well..." Zero sighed. He stroked her hair absent-mindedly, looking up at the canopy as he ran through the night so far in his head. "You might not find the answers useful. Both forceful and pliant from you are nice, but I think one wouldn't work as well without the other following it eventually. Teasing with your fangs... it's not dangerous anymore, but the effect isn't reduced." 

She slid her hand down his chest and along his stomach, laughing lightly at the way he phrased that. Yuuki raised an eyebrow and said, "'The effect isn't reduced'?"

He glanced down, following her hand for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "Would you prefer me to say that the biting and nibbling feels good?"

"Hmm..."

Yuuki remained deliberately above Zero's clothing for the moment, running her fingers along the prominent bulge in his pajama bottoms. She traced its outline loosely, smiling impishly at the light twitch and sharp exhalation that followed from him. It _was_ easier while she could see his face, after all.

"I don't know... I just feel like 'lecture-style Zero' is detached. When we're doing something like this, I want you more unfiltered," she said, dragging her index finger up along the middle of his shaft on her way to picking at his waistband.

Zero grunted, but Yuuki could tell it wasn't a reaction to what she'd said. Abruptly she drew away, lying down on her side and gesturing for him to join her. He complied wordlessly, but when he started to turn to face her Yuuki pushed him back down and nestled in against his side, hooking her leg over his and shaking her head. "Nope. Stay put."

Despite himself, Zero laughed. It wasn't the first time Yuuki had heard such a thing, but it felt like it had been a long time. Subtle snorts and other small breaths of amusement were common enough, but fully animate laughter felt like a special treat. It was easier for them to interact lying together like this, and Yuuki felt especially validated for her choice when he cupped her face lovingly.

"I don't know how good I can be at what you're asking," he admitted. "But that look on your face when you've decided on something is intoxicating."

Yuuki slid her hand beneath his waistband, skimming the side of his cock with her thumb until she came to the base. Very tentatively she took hold of him, watching his face as she did so. His eyelids drooped a little and he issued a sharp exhalation, pulsing in her hand. She blinked rapidly, loosening her fingers.

"It's normal," Zero reassured her. He laid his hand over Yuuki's, making incremental adjustments to her grip, guiding her in stroking him at a slow pace until she seemed to find some confidence in the motion.

Making a contemplative noise, Yuuki began to experiment with increasing the speed that he had set for her. She could practically feel his pulse quicken, but the most obvious involuntary signal that he gave her was a subtle jerk of the leg beneath hers. She lifted her leg, rubbing it against his.

The sudden sensation of his hand at the back of her head didn't surprise Yuuki, but the forcefulness with which he handled her did. Zero drew her into a deep, needy kiss and held her fast in place; she could have escaped if she wanted, but she didn't. The dart of his tongue against hers, the occasional deliberate tracing of fangs accompanied by the faintest notes of blood on the breath exciting her senses. Soft noises that Yuuki might not have otherwise caught rumbled in his throat and lips, becoming a tangibly vivid experience that left her aching for more.

The measured increasing pace that she had intended was abandoned in favor of a quickly escalating motion that soon had Zero leaning back and panting, his fingers pressing in tightly against her scalp. Experimentally, she adjusted the positioning of her index finger and brought the pad of her finger very gently across the tip, a bead of fluid that had lingered there clinging to her skin as she broke it. It was almost the same mis-step he had made, and he pulled her hand away abruptly in response.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Zero groaned in a combination of agitation and pleasure, his breath hitching audibly even now that he had pushed her away.

"I'm sorry!" Yuuki said. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

He shook his head, taking a moment to steady his own breathing. "Just sensory overload. You had the right idea."

"Then, did you..." Yuuki looked down at the bulge that still strained against his pajamas.

"Almost, but no," he replied.

Yuuki hummed discontentedly. "I thought I had you figured out."

"You did."

"Even though you had to stop me?" she wondered.

Zero snorted. He patted her head affectionately. "You had to stop me, too. Would you say I didn't have the right idea?"

"No," Yuuki ceded, nuzzling her face against Zero's neck and squeezing his leg with hers. "But I got another thought in my head, at the end."

He made a questioning noise.

Yuuki nodded. " _Mhm_. It was, 'I want to make Zero lose control'."

"... I thought you'd be a lot more shy than this, even after a while," Zero remarked.

"W-well..." Yuuki drummed her fingers against his chest. "It's not that it's not taking any sort of effort, and when things get mixed up with being hungry, that makes it a bit easier. But you... you make it easier because you've always trusted me even when you knew you shouldn't, and you've never made me feel stupid for getting corrected. Sometimes you're a little careless when you find something funny... or can't talk when I really wish you would. But when I ask you for your feelings, you give me _something_ , even when it's so uncomfortable that you look worried. It's easier to be vulnerable when you know you'll be accepted no matter what."

That was more than he expected would be said about the subject. Zero smiled, stroking Yuuki's hair. Even for someone like him who could be called emotionally difficult, a statement like that summoned a storm of happy butterflies. "Sorry, but... this will be another one of those times. I don't know what to say to such a thing. Except that it makes me happy, and..."

Her eyes rose to meet Zero's. Yuuki expected that he wouldn't be able to fully reciprocate an unfiltered flow of feelings like that, but she still ached to hear what he could manage.

"... I need you, too," Zero completed the thought.

Those words she had spoken to him back then were impulsive and needy, brought on by hunger and hurt. Yuuki hadn't expected to have them echoed back at her in such a way. Even though she'd spent the past little while pushing the boundaries of her comfort zone, she still blushed furiously and buried her face in his chest.

Slowly, she peeked up at him again. "Th-that's not 'another one of those times', Zero! That was... it was really sweet and thoughtful."

He looked so pleased with himself when she said that, that Yuuki wished she had a camera on hand to capture the moment.

They laid together in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Zero said, "I'd like a shower."

"That sounds nice," Yuuki replied.

"Do you want to--?"

Yuuki nodded rapidly.

* * *

It was more awkward than Yuuki anticipated it would be, when they'd agreed on it. For one thing the cooling of the mood was making her feel a little self-conscious again, but the other was the same thing she'd been tripped up by a few times in bed with him so far. The logistics of two bodies in a closed space were weird, and she only just stopped shy of suggesting they take a bath instead. The clawed-foot tub that rested beneath the shower head would've made for an easier time of figuring who went where.

"You're not about to take a test, you know," he remarked to her, as they waited for the water to heat.

Zero stood with his back to the shower, clad in a lilac dressing gown and -- she knew -- nothing else. She shot him an irritated look.

"What makes me nervous, makes me nervous, even if it doesn't make sense," Yuuki retorted. She tugged at the edge of her own gown, which was a soft brown that was wonderfully fuzzy on the inside.

He just shrugged, and waited. It wasn't until the mirror began to fog that Zero disrobed and climbed into the shower.

Yuuki watched him go, drinking in his appearance until he vanished behind the curtain. She tugged her robe off and left it on the counter, padding to the curtain and peeking around it tentatively.

For his part, Zero was just standing there in the water with his eyes closed. It didn't seem to be because of her, though. Yuuki gave him a quick once-over before she tugged the curtain back a ways and started to step in.

"In front of me," he said, barely before her foot had left the floor.

She swayed for a moment and sputtered, "Wh-what? Why?"

"You're too short and the faucet is low," Zero explained.

Yuuki made a grudging noise of assent and climbed in through the front, drawing the curtain behind her. While his eyes were still shut, she raised a hand and measured the difference in their heights curiously. Then she turned around and shut her eyes, deciding that he had the right idea.

Hot water crashed down around them, the sound and heat drowning out the world around them.

Once most of the tension had bled out of her, Yuuki leaned back and nudged her shoulder against Zero's chest. "Hey."

He made an inquiring noise.

"You're really pretty," she said.

Zero leaned over Yuuki and kissed her cheek lightly. "You, too."

"Would it ruin things if I asked you something really serious?" Yuuki asked.

"No."

Yuuki swallowed harshly. This had occurred to her more than a few times since their relationship started, but it hadn't ever been more relevant. "You know that getting involved with me like this... that it's asking for trouble, right?"

"Yeah," Zero confirmed.

"And you're okay with that?"

Zero slid his arms around Yuuki and pulled her back against him, resting his chin atop her head. She made a pleased sound, the awkwardness of their physical situation dispelled by the reassurance that she knew what he intended by it.

"Yuuki... it's an unavoidable truth of my life that I will fight. If that's true, why should I be displeased to fight for you?" he answered.

Yuuki sighed in relief and contentment, sinking back against Zero gratefully. All the tiny anxieties that made her nervous in the moment seemed unimportant then, evaporating into the air. Never before had anyone said something that made her feel so safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A part of the delay in this chapter was being unsure I wanted to escalate the sort of sexual content that is featured in From A Gentler Beginning. To speak quite personally, my reluctance to write sexuality is rooted in toxically puritanical upbringing, and as a result I feel strongly that it's a good thing for sexuality to be portrayed positively. Because of that, I decided to stick with and finish what I wrote instead of starting over, both to maintain personal philosophical coherency and as a challenge to myself. 
> 
> So what you get is a healthy but inexperienced couple with some problems trying to figure each other out and some cutesy aftermath. I sincerely hope that doesn't make anybody uncomfortable.


	3. With Love

* * *

It was the first time anybody but the handful of people staying in Kaien's house had seen Zero since he was bitten. He appeared at the shooting range between the closing of the Sun gates and the opening of the Moon gates, and resumed his routine as if nothing happened. Soon enough, he found himself joined by Kaito.

When Kaito arrived they looked at each other for a long, long moment. It was a re-evaluation, a weighing of places. In the end, though, if it changed anything neither showed it immediately. Zero waited for Kaito to get set up and started reloading magazines, pulling his hearing protection down to his neck.

"How was it?" Kaito asked, out of the blue.

Zero looked at him, raising his eyebrows.

"Changing," he clarified.

Carefully lining up the rounds that he had been about to load into the magazine in front of him, Zero moved to the bench adjacent to Kaito and sat down.

If Kaito was perturbed by this, he didn't show it. He laid Weeping Larkspur down on his chosen counter, along with a sidearm that was nearly identical to Zero's. From a bag that hung from his shoulder he produced a short repeater, which he propped up in a stand designed for accommodating rifles.

"Do you want to know what I felt, or are you..." Zero didn't complete the thought. He made an odd gesture, clenching his right hand into a fist and bringing his left to squeeze around his forearm.

"Bit of both," Kaito said.

Zero nodded.

"At the front end of it, you're feverish and vaguely ill. Your eyes have started changing but aren't adjusted, so all lights are bright. Aches everywhere, and then they settle in and throb. Like growing pains," Zero explained. He hooked his thumb beneath his upper lip and pulled it back to expose his leftmost fang. "These are less like getting new teeth and more like wisdom teeth coming in. Sometimes it's manageable with ice, sometimes it's not. Around that time you start getting 'hungry', but you don't have most of the equipment to do anything about it. Sense of taste and smell come in."

He allowed his lip to fall back into place and indicated his eyes. "When you start getting hungry, your eyes start glowing. I ended up blindfolding myself because it wouldn't stop. The circulatory system adjustments feel like being operated on while awake, without painkillers."

"Ah, well..." Kaito donned brown mufflers and began to load his repeater. "It's a good thing you softened the blow for me, otherwise I might have been disturbed."

Zero snorted. He got up and resumed his own reloading.

"Do I smell like anything interesting now?" Kaito asked, a lopsided sardonic grin curving his lips.

Zero clicked his tongue in mock disapproval. "Sexual harassment the moment we see each other again?"

"Try not to bite your tongue flattering yourself," Kaito retorted.

Since he had discussed this topic with Yuuki, Zero had made a deliberate effort not to take in the scents of others. It was something that he wasn't supposed to just come right out and talk about. Besides that, Yuuki's scent was so powerful most of the time that it drowned out the subtle complexities of the other smells around him. Part of that was the nature of a Pureblood, but most of it was that he simply preferred her.

He inhaled deeply, trying to pick Kaito out. It wasn't hard, since they were only a couple of yards apart. The surface scent of Kaito Takamiya was chemically laced, trace components of chemistry lab and laundry room chemistry intermingling to form a dangerously tangy aroma that mostly overwhelmed Kaito's natural smell. Mostly, but not entirely. There was nothing else Zero could compare that to, though. It was simply the smell that was Kaito, and occupied Kaito's spaces in his absence.

The scent of Kaito's blood was another matter entirely. It was like fresh black tea, not strongly brewed but not so weak that it didn't have a distinct if subtle odor of its own. There was the faintest sweetness to it, as if its bitterness was curbed incredibly lightly by cream or honey. Enough to smell, if a cup of it had been held up to one's nose prior to drinking, but not a drop more.

That... really would have been embarrassing to share openly, he decided. It wasn't an inaccurate expression for how he felt about Kaito, but it seemed almost too poetically detailed to share with another person without coming off as excessively attached. Zero shrugged and replaced his hearing protection.

"Do we know anything new about the attacker?" Zero asked, changing the subject.

Kaito shook his head and stood up, taking aim with his rifle. "Not the one who sent familiars. We're pretty sure the guy who nearly killed you is from an Aristocratic bloodline that was thought extinct. Pro-royalist type from the civil war of 15-something-or-other. Looks like they slipped a daughter out to safety before they got purged."

Zero nodded, changing the magazine in Bloody Rose to a fresh one and cycling the slide. "I've been too ill to seriously talk about it, but... the one sending the familiars. It's probably a Kuran."

"What?" Kaito asked, surprised. He lowered his repeater.

"One of his familiars flew up to me and tried to order me to kill myself," Zero explained. "I felt the order trying to work on me, but it didn't take. I'd only just been bitten, so I couldn't have been commanded by just any Pureblood. Yuuki probably would have been able to make it work, but that it had any effect at all means..."

"They'd have to be related," Kaito finished the thought. "Shit. I don't like the sound of that."

"Yeah..."

"You tell her?"

Zero shook his head. "Not yet. I wanted to get the information to you first."

Kaito scratched his head. "You're suspicious of her?"

"No... if she'd wanted me gone, she had plenty of opportunities. I just don't want her to worry before we have a more solid lead than 'probably a relative of hers'," Zero replied.

The conversation paused while they lined up shots and went through their ammunition. Zero was practicing left-handed at that particular time, so his aim wasn't _quite_ up to his standard. He frowned, ejecting the magazine awkwardly and replacing it quickly. That still wasn't within his margins of acceptable timing, though. It didn't help that the eject was positioned for right-handed firing.

The sound of gunfire continued from Kaito's lane a little after Zero had swapped. He took a moment to collect brass before seating himself and reloading the repeater.

"How is the casting equipment in the machine shop?" Zero asked.

"Acceptable, but pretty heavily used. The teacher likes to center projects around recycling materials on hand," Kaito answered. "Planning to do some reloading?"

"Something like that."

They resumed shooting for several minutes before either of them spoke again, going through a routine set of exercises intended to practice covering the other during reloads. The exercise ended when Kaito reached the end of Weeping Larkspur's single extended magazine, and they both claimed their targets and started sweeping up brass.

"You know Arata's going to try to put a shiv in you, right?" Kaito asked, bluntly.

"Yeah," Zero agreed.

Kaito snorted. "Doesn't sound like you care too much."

Zero shrugged and upended his dustpan full of brass into one of his collection cans with a heavy rattle. "You going to report what I say back to him?"

"Paraphrased, but probably. Can't let him think I'm too moderate," Kaito said.

"Well..." Zero deposited his empty magazines in his bag and replaced Bloody Rose's primary live magazine. "Then I'd have to say, 'Arata has more spots where that still works than I do'."

Kaito laughed and shook his head. "Already fed up, huh?"

"That guy has been looking for an excuse since he sent you here. I'm not interested in hurting anybody or turning traitor, but I won't tolerate anyone interfering in my life, whether it's the President or our mystery Pureblood," Zero said. He picked up his bag, holstered Bloody Rose, and headed for the door.

Before he exited the room, Zero paused, his back still turned. "You and I... we're still fine, right?"

Kaito shrugged, and took his time collecting his own belongings. "If I think you're going to go feral, I'll put you down. But as long as Zero is Zero, we're still fine. Isn't that what you'd do for me?"

"... Yeah," he agreed, and left.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Ichiru spent the days following the attack taking over Zero's role as the Sun dorm gate manager. The students had grown accustomed to his brother's presence however, and simply being the one doing the job had invited obnoxious questions. With a strained quality to his voice, he had told anyone who asked, "Zero is ill and recovering at the Chairman's house. He's contagious, so it's not safe for him to stay in the dormitory until it's cleared up."

Most students were indifferent, or mildly relieved to have Ichiru instead. On the second night Shindo had come along and asked him to take a 'care package' to his brother. Ichiru shook his head. "It's not safe for me to be over there, either. If you insist on giving it to him, ask the Chairman."

But Shindo had just returned to her room before carrying on with her day without the package.

He rarely saw Yuuki, and that was deliberate. Ichiru had been talked to about her by Maria, and he was no longer plotting ways to murder her, but he still didn't like her or want to look at her more than he had to. This, he knew, was something he was going to have to get over. He wasn't about to do it a single moment before he had to, though. What she had done was atrocious. There had to be a different way.

Tonight, things went differently. In the distance, Ichiru could sense the swell of Zero's qi. He was otherworldly now, more like 'them' than the hunters on campus. There was a difference to the texture of his aural silhouette compared to the other vampires, and Ichiru wasn't certain how he would describe it if he had to. Perhaps it was just that he knew Zero too well. Certainly, he could distinguish his brother even when _that woman_ was with him, as enormous as her silhouette was.

But what was unusual was that she was not on Prefect duty at all tonight. Ichiru swung the Sun gate door shut -- it was currently a patchwork repair, not nearly as sturdy as the last one -- and locked it before making his way towards the Moon gate. He nodded at Takuma when they passed one another on the bridge, and blinked when he found Maria sitting on a stool next to the iron Moon gate.

Maria had a bag of medical blood with a straw poked in it held in one hand, and she was sipping on it casually. Her parasol was connected to the gate with some kind of bracket, spread out above her, though it was no longer necessary. She smiled mildly towards Ichiru and adjusted her posture, straightening her back. "Did you come to visit me, or is this official business?"

Ichiru's eyes darted to the red Prefect band that circled Maria's slim arm, then back towards her face. "When did _this_ happen?"

"This morning," Maria said, swinging her legs back and forth. "Miss Kuran said that she needed a bit more rest. I think because your brother finished changing, and he had to drink a lot of her blood on top of everything else."

Ichiru scowled, striding over next to Maria and leaning against the gate to the side of her. He crossed his arms over his chest, but didn't say anything.

Looking rather uncomfortable, Maria rotated her stool to face Ichiru properly. "Is that really such a bad thing, Ichiru?"

"It's... at **best** it's complicated, and at worst it gets Zero labeled compromised," Ichiru said, held back from a biting tone only because it was Maria he was talking to. He felt like he was kicking a kitten whenever he grew too coarse with her.

"Do _you_ think he is?"

"I..."

"I don't think the Princess would do anything to hurt that man on purpose. And if it's not 'that it was her', then you're worried about him being a vampire at all," Maria said.

Ichiru sighed. He admitted, "I am a little bit worried about that, yes."

Maria stopped swinging her legs. She looked up into Ichiru's face, an expression of hurt registering on her features. "Am I really such an awful thing to you?"

"Maybe not 'awful', but 'frightening'," Ichiru said, trying to temper his words and tone. He wasn't altogether successful with the latter.

That didn't seem to balm Maria's hurt, but she did nod in understanding. "It's hard. To be surrounded by people who are stronger than you. To have to rely on their kindness. But it makes me sad, Ichiru. That because I have fangs to bare, you're frightened of me."

She raised her left hand and stretched towards Ichiru. "Fangs that... even in a different form, you share."

"Maria, don't--" Ichiru began, but it was too late.

The tip of Maria's finger brushed against the hilt of Ichiru's blade. It crackled angrily and she jerked her hand back, sucking on her blistered fingertip.

Ichiru heaved a frustrated sigh. "Stay put."

He left for a good twenty minutes. When he returned he was carrying a paper sack and, Maria noticed, had adjusted where he was wearing his sword so that it was better concealed by his jacket. Everybody understood, broadly, that the Kiryu twins were as much 'junior security' as anything else, but the fact that they carried weapons openly was odd even here. She was surprised it took him this long to take greater pains to conceal his sword.

"Ichiru," Maria said, as he took her injured hand.

"What?" Ichiru flipped the paper sack open and pulled out a tub of something with a strong scent to it. It wasn't unpleasant, but definitely had that distinctive scent of a cooling cream. He started applying it to her fingertips, a bit roughly.

"I don't understand you," she said.

"There's nothing to understand," he insisted.

"When it comes to something like this, you don't even hesitate. You're very kind. But... if I reach out to you, even a little, you..." Maria trailed away.

"I'm a hunter," Ichiru mumbled, uncomfortably.

"A hunter who dropped everything to go and fetch me some cream for a burn I gave myself," she retorted, raising her free hand to close it around the hand that held hers.

Ichiru shot Maria such a fiercely angry look that she let go of him immediately, her hand trembling.

Maria rested her hands in her lap and stared at them. "Ichiru... I'm going home over winter break. If you'd like to visit, it would make me happy to see you."

She lifted her bag from beneath her stool and rifled around in it, producing an envelope that she offered to him without looking.

Ichiru took the envelope and pocketed it. He hesitated and, half-afraid of something he couldn't articulate even to himself, half-guilty for what he knew was an abuse of someone who did not deserve it in the slightest, stormed off.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

"Where the hell are we even going, 'Zuka?" Tomio wondered aloud, steering their houseboat further upstream. He had been lost for easily the last two hundred miles, ever since they'd made a stop at a small lakeside town with enough of a fishing community to provide fuel. While they were there, Shizuka had purchased a new map and played the part of navigator thereafter. It wasn't that he minded that by itself, but he liked to be able to pick a direction with some awareness if it happened that Shizuka needed to do something else in the middle of it.

Shizuka stretched against the chaise that she was laying on. Now that she was within the privacy of a home she had re-adopted her personal attire while she had the opportunity to do so; a light pink houmongi decorated with red blossoms. She traced a finger along the map, tapping a nail against her intended destination.

"Don't you prefer a surprise, dear?" she asked, teasingly.

"Maybe when we're not being tailed," he answered, irritably.

She slid from her chaise and padded across the room with the map in hand. Shizuka considered her choice of seating for a moment before draping herself across Tomio's lap, smiling sadistically at the sputtering this caused.

"Hush. I'm going to share my secret with you now," Shizuka said, laying the map out across the wheel. She dragged a nail slowly along her intended route, "Most of my family is not worth the effort of knowing, but one of my distant great-aunts is among our benefactors. As vampire royalty goes, she's thought of as something like a 'crazy cat lady', though you might find her pets to be rather more jarring than felines. _Personally_ I only have enough energy for one pet, but to each their own."

She ran a hand along Tomio's face affectionately. "It's around the right time of year to go and see my little cousins. So we are going to go have a nice winter solstice off the road, and then move on."

Tomio bristled. "W-why can't you just explain these things like a normal person..."

"Hmm..." Shizuka wrapped her arms around Tomio's neck. "You make amusing faces that entertain me. Sometimes the teasing isn't teasing. And _I_... am far too exceptional a woman to be troubled with doing things like an ordinary person. I'm afraid that your curse is being the grounded one between us... but you haven't complained seriously since you were thrown into that cage with me."

"Now," she sat up straighter to whisper into Tomio's ear, "how about... we take care of that tail?"

He shot her a flat, frustrated look. "You're the worst."

Shizuka smiled and nodded, but still waited for an answer.

"They're just hired help," Tomio said, a little uncomfortably. "They don't know what they're involved in. We should just pin them down at the next fuel stop and alter their memories."

"How very practical. Won't they keep records?"

Tomio hadn't thought of that. He sighed, rubbing at the back of his head. "Damned if I know. If we want to be sure I guess we'll have to stick around a location and see if we can't trace them back to where they're staying."

"Mm. By the way, Tomio..."

"I don't like where this is going," Tomio grumbled.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to operate a dirigible, would you?" Shizuka asked.

"Please tell me you're joking this time."

Shizuka shook her head.

Tomio buried his face in his hands. "Oh my god."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Ichiru sat beneath a tree in the gardens, staring at the envelope. He had held it too forcefully, and now it was visibly wrinkled and ugly. The paper was thick, papyrus-like, of the kind favored by older vampire families trying to make an impression. His name was written across its face, more in calligraphy than regular handwriting. It wasn't much, but he knew that it was the sort of thing somebody put a lot of careful personal effort into. Sighing miserably, he opened it up and plucked out the letter within.

The writing surface was vellum, or something like it. High quality, designed to last, like what an ancient deed might have been written upon. It wasn't the sort of thing that somebody would ordinarily use for a note that was handed off hastily. His eyes flicked to the top of the page as he unfolded it.

_Dearest Ichiru,_

He lowered the letter, squeezing his eyes shut. Discomfort mixed in his gut with a deep, growing guilt. Ichiru wasn't comfortable at all with that sort of deliberately intimate language, and if it had been coming from somebody he hadn't gotten to know he would've rationalized it away as a stylistic preference. But he knew Maria well enough to know that it was intentional, and the writing within was no less a careful work of calligraphy than his name on the envelope.

Ichiru raised his free hand to his chest and tightened his fingers on the front of his shirt, breathing frantically. What was he supposed to do with such a thing? If it were somebody else he might find something patronizing about the way they treated him. Some tiny aspect of not treating him as a person with agency, some scrap of perceived disrespect. Even his mother and father had acknowledged, however reluctantly, that his uses were limited. His teacher, too. Because of that, Zero was the favorite. Because of that...

Because of that an unrestrained attempt to reach out was foreign. He didn't know if he was about to be sick, or cry. No... he definitely wouldn't cry. That time was over. Nobody would get to see him be weak ever again.

He raised the letter again and resumed reading.

* * *

_My first term at Cross Academy has been wonderful, and I didn't think it would be. I'm not popular, but Princess Yuuki has given me useful things to do and I've been able to make new friends. Having friends comes easily to me, but making them has always been hard. Sometimes I feel like I'm the odd one out in a box full of baby animals, being pushed away from others because I'm too small or different. When I saw you sitting there by the gate, even though I didn't show it, I was very excited. I could see that you had white fur and red eyes, just like me._

_I know that sounds strange, but I hope you understand. Because, you were a big part of what made coming to Cross Academy wonderful for me. I think that you are probably more important to me than I am to you, and even though the thought of that hurts, I understand that sometimes people's feelings just do not match and that there is no one to blame for it. But I also think that maybe you do not know how to feel liked. I've only tried to express my affection to you in the way that a vampire does, and each time I've done so you've run away, so I decided that I will try something more human._

_I will be visiting home over the winter holiday, and I would be delighted if you would join me for a day or two during that time. My family will be there, and I know that it is very frightening to go into unknown territory, especially for someone like us. I was very frightened of Cross Academy before I got there. But I was able to be brave, and I think that you are too. Just to clear the air for you, I do not expect you to come as my 'lover' or 'boyfriend' (sorry, but we will be teased by others along these lines no matter what I do) but just as my good friend Ichiru._

_Even if the only thing you can manage is to knock at my door (but I wouldn't say no to rocks at my window!) and say hello, that would mean a lot to me. The address, train stop, and telephone number are on the back of this letter._

_I'll be leaving on the twentieth. If you want to travel together, let me know before then._

_With Love,_

_Maria Kurenai_

* * *

It didn't calm Ichiru to read the rest of it. He eased himself down into the grass and drew his weapon up out of his belt, laying it across his stomach and closing his eyes. Nausea made his head spin. He crinkled the edge of the letter between his thumb and index finger, running his thumb across dried ink. This wasn't like him.

If their strengths were to be weighed, though Zero was the 'kinder', Ichiru had always been better at processing and communicating feelings. Better, indeed, at flattering the people he actually liked as well. At least, that's what he thought. Yet there his brother was, courting that damned princess without a care in the world while he, Ichiru, had a panic attack because a girl who happened to have fangs liked him enough to invite him over.

A familiar aural silhouette aggravated the edges of Ichiru's senses. He opened one eye and watched as Takuma Ichijo stepped into view.

Takuma had a long bag slung over his shoulder, containing what Ichiru assumed was athletic equipment. It had that sort of look about it. He didn't look concerned precisely, but wore an expression that Ichiru liked to describe as diplomatically friendly. The longer they spent together, though, the less he thought it was just good business sense on Takuma's part.

"You're looking a little green, Ichiru," Takuma greeted him, genially.

Ichiru folded the letter in his hand, tucked it back into its envelope, and deposited it in the interior pocket of his jacket. "A common response to unpleasant introspection. Did you need something, Takuma?"

"Ah, well..." Takuma patted his bag. "You see, we have similar tastes in weapons. I thought it would be precipitous to ask when we were still freshly introduced, but we've been working together for months now. So I thought I'd see if you might want to do some practice together."

"... Sure," Ichiru said. It was against his immediate instincts, but those weren't doing him any good right now. After a pause, he added, "You didn't mean 'right now', did you?"

Takuma thought about it. "I did, but come to think of it I probably shouldn't just before class. I won't have nearly enough time to grab a shower and get ready again. How about after the last Night class lecture but before the dorm rotation? That's not too strange an hour for you, is it?"

Ichiru shook his head. "That's fine, unless you have two hours to spare after our second class together."

"I'm afraid not. My schedule is agonizingly ordinary for the Night class," Takuma said, apologetically.

"It's not a problem," Ichiru said, shutting his eyes again.

"See you later, then. Try not to get carried away and sleep through hemothaumaturgy," Takuma said, and left.

Ichiru mumbled incoherently to himself and laid on the ground for a few more minutes before he used his sword to get himself to his feet. Time for class, he supposed.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Yuuki woke to the feeling of somebody getting into bed beside her. 'Somebody', of course, could only be one person. The smell of him was enough to confirm it, even without looking. She was feeling fatigued from the last few days, and had not only decided to take the day off, but spent most of it in bed. She had done some light reading, which had been split between a mystery thriller and a book she had on the various species of flowers. A little bit was dedicated to a backlog of homework that today was only going to make worse, but she was confident she could catch up, and she really was worn out.

She turned over and wrapped her arms around Zero's arm, _nomfing_ down on his bicep playfully. It wasn't a real bite, of course. That needed more time and warning. Her eyelids rose to half mast as she looked up at him, a comfortably sleepy haze separating her from anything that remotely resembled a serious or filtered mindset.

"Hi," she greeted him, her voice muffled against his skin.

Zero surveyed Yuuki tiredly. He hadn't realized exactly how much he was still recovering. As it happened, even for a vampire with a steady blood supply, reformatting your entire body leaned on the rough side.

"I'm hungry," she said, flashing a lopsided smile.

"Keep it snack portioned, but go ahead," he said.

Yuuki disentangled herself from Zero's arm and draped herself across his side, pressing a single kiss to his throat before plunging her fangs into his neck. It was a struggle to let go as quickly as he'd asked, but she obliged and settled in to lick away what little spillage there was. Tired or not, he was so juiced up on her blood that he healed quite rapidly.

"You're warm and tasty," she declared, settling in against him with every intention of sleeping right where she was.

Zero made a noise of contentment and ran his fingers through Yuuki's hair affectionately, halting only once his consciousness began to wane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's time for OTHER CHARACTERS again! (Mostly.)
> 
> Ichiru is being more difficult than Zero, isn't he? Poor Maria.
> 
> That gesture Zero made isn't going to make sense for a while now. It's not a "joke" exactly, but it is an inside reference that only people close to Kaito would make. Their relationship is a little complicated, but between hunters, 'If you go crazy I'll kill you.' isn't really threatening exactly.
> 
> Yes, the implication Shizuka is making is that the lineage which produced Maria Kurenai's family is a crazy (great great great great great^5) aunt with a harem of formerly human vampires. Tomio and Shizuka's relationship is mostly Tomio being an otherwise normal house husband who'd like to set down roots and Shizuka making insane demands he can't help but go along with. If he asked, she'd probably calm down for a while, but it seems like he hasn't so far. Their adventures involve a lot of casual crime.
> 
> As for the end of the chapter... I wanted to offer a cute palate cleanser. But come to think of it, there's a strong parallel between Shizuka and Tomio, and Yuuki and Zero isn't there? I'm quite pleased with that.
> 
> On the subject of Yuuki and Zero, you may be wondering: Does it make sense for two vampires to feed on each other circularly like this? Actually, yes. By providing her blood Yuuki keeps Zero powered up and healing faster, and by providing his blood Zero keeps Yuuki healthily fed. I'm also generally of the opinion that drinking from a Pureblood is rather like the "Elixir of Life" and even if you would normally die of old age it can make your lifespan indefinite with a consistent supply. Even though many vampires don't like Purebloods having this sort of relationship, this is part of the function of Purebloods being able to make subordinate vampires in my view. Assuming a vampire needs about a pint of blood a day as basic sustenance, a human really can't provide that safely very often. Perhaps I should do a supplemental entry on this sort of thing?


	4. Finals Week

* * *

"Whyyyy... does everything come so easily to you?!" Yuuki demanded, pushing her hemothaumaturgy sketchbook down the length of the bed in frustration. The sigil she had been trying to get down was one of her own design, in the shape of a rose, but getting it perfect had proven almost impossible. Some of that could be attributed to a lack of practice, of course.

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Zero leaned forward and dragged the sketchpad back towards them. He pushed it open and examined the page Yuuki was having problems with. Well, as a piece of 'art', it wasn't a bad effort. The one on the opposite page... they were _almost_ identical, and that was the problem. The final required a submission of **actually** identical sigils. "It doesn't. When you don't 'play' much, it's not hard to focus on 'work'. And I haven't had the energy for most of our 'play'."

She made an aggravated noise, but waited to hear what his input would be.

"You're overcomplicating your personal sigil, so consistency is becoming too difficult. Because of that, it also won't scale well," he explained.

"Scale?" she asked.

"The purpose of any hemothaumaturgical sigil is to associate it with another one," Zero said, pulling his own sketchbook from the base of his bedside table and laying it on top of Yuuki's. He flipped to the last couple of pages. At first Yuuki thought she was looking at a honeycomb, but she quickly realized that it was more along the lines of the cylinder on Zero's fallback gun. Only... instead of circular holes, each had a stylized five-pointed "star" shape. The center spot that would have been occupied by the crane was the only one that had a circular gap. Outside of this centerpiece were four nails, each angled towards the cylinder.

He continued his explanation, "My ideal was something that could be reproduced in a stencil, stamp, or molded shape. It's ugly, but it will work and is distinct enough that it is unlikely to be accidentally sympathized with other symbols. You'll be scored based on a combination of security, uniformity, and the consistency of each of your submissions. What _you_ are attempting to do has practicality for certain purposes but is better for sigils that require only a singular implementation. That's a second-level concept, we won't be doing it this term."

Zero shut his sketchbook and set it aside. "What you need to do is stylize more. Limit the number of distinct petals, and determine a reinforcing shape that can serve as an outer boundary. When it comes to _you_ I'd suggest trying to visualize your design as something you're practically implementing in a piece of jewelry. Ultra-realism won't provide an ideal effect without too much effort. If you're feeling brave and a bit cheeky, you might also be able to get away with incorporating a fingerprint so long as you can keep the placement consistent."

Taking Yuuki's hand and turning it over, he indicated the pad of her thumb, "This is about the smallest surface area you might want a sigil to occupy. If you can't imagine it being able to scale 'down' as well as up, reconsider."

Yuuki made an even more aggravated noise. She turned her hand back over and dragged Zero's hand around animatedly as she complained, "That's a lot of words to tell me to start over! Still..." She released his hand, grabbing her sketchbook and turning it to a new set of pages.

"Jewelry, jewelry," she muttered to herself, pulling her pencil from the binding and beginning to work.

"... Well, I'm going to go get some things done at the main building," Zero said, rising.

"Ah? Are you going shooting without me again?" Yuuki asked, looking up.

Zero blinked, and shook his head. "No, nothing like that. If you want to join me, I'll let you know next time."

Yuuki nodded. She was just about to tuck back in when...

"Hey, what _are_ you doing, then?" she asked, suspiciously.

"It's a secret. Do you need me to bring anything back?" Zero replied.

Yuuki screwed up her face in concentration, trying to discern what secrets Zero might even _have_ that are just across the lake.

"Yuuki?"

"Huh? O-oh, no, no. Just yourself," she replied, waving animatedly at him.

Zero nodded and left.

She waited until the sounds of footsteps faded down the hall and then crept out of bed, cracking the door and peeking out. Yuuki could still smell Zero in the house, heading through the foyer to the front door. She chewed thoughtfully on her lip, trying to decide whether or not to chance tailing him with a familiar. Actually, that sounded like a good idea regardless of the 'secret' business. The assailant had _really_ been spoiling to hurt him in specific, after all.

Yuuki stuck a finger around the door, extruding a butterfly from the tip. It fluttered down the hall at unnatural speed and darted out the door as it swung shut.

As soon as the door clicked behind him, Zero stopped. "Come on, then. But you have to stay outside when I get where I'm going."

"H-hey..." Yuuki's familiar vibrated in agitation. It fluttered down on top of Zero's head. "How can you sense me when I'm so small? Come to think of it... you were the only one who could sense 'that guy', too..."

"Kaien and my mother could, too," Zero said. He resumed walking down the bridge, absolutely unconcerned with the fact that he was talking to a butterfly on his head.

Kasumi gave him a funny look in passing.

"Ah! It's because you were already a 'vampire without fangs'?" The butterfly asked, its antennae bobbing cheerily.

"Yeah."

Yuuki hummed thoughtfully and got up from her bed, dissolving into a cloud of butterflies herself. They plunged beneath the crack of the door and out into the hallway, fluttering out a cracked window and soaring over the treetops into the Moon dorm across the lake. She materialized in front of her bedroom door, pushing it open and opening up her closet.

"Your 'secret'... is it for our date?" she guessed.

He made an affirmative noise. It was super-audible, since she was literally perched on his head over there. "You'll have to go when I finish collecting what I need."

"Okay!" she agreed, excitedly. Yuuki sorted through the dresses she brought with her, inspecting them each in turn. _Most_ were for more casual situations than this one, but she hadn't gone **completely** without preparing for a special occasion. A few cocktail dresses, but those were a bit too casual too. She wanted...

This one... sequins in white. Fun, but too flashy. That one-- a little short? Too 'summer picnic'. Yuuki bit her thumbnail at that thought and made a point of setting it aside and reminding herself to use it for that in particular. The next was too shockingly pink, the one after that had looked adorable but been disappointing once she received it, and the third...

"Do you care if I bring something to help you match me a little? A tie, or a corsage," she asked.

"I know a florist," Zero said.

"You... know a florist?" she asked, bewildered.

"He lives down the street from us. His garden smells nice. Sometimes, we buy medicinal herbs from him," he elaborated.

Yuuki shook her head rapidly and pulled down the dress. It was a soft pink design that left the back, shoulders, and arms bare. Most of the cloth had a gauzy quality to it, not actually see-through in the slightest but of a texture and character that liked to trick the mind into thinking it was less opaque than it really was. It secured around the neck, and had a pair of scarf-like streamers cascading down the shoulders to frame the back.

She decided it had just the right amount of playfulness to suit her purposes. With a sweep of her hand she relocated the gown to the dress form she had at the back of the closet. Shoes, shoes...

"Write down the number for me when you get back," she said.

"Study for your finals, Yuuki," Zero reminded her. He had stopped outside of his dorm room, frowning across the hall. Ichiru was staring at him from his own doorway, pointing at the top of his own head quizzically.

Zero shrugged, raising both arms in deliberate exaggeration of the gesture.

Yuuki made a noise of dissent. "Noooo. I've been staring at it so long that it lost meaning, I'll get back to it with your advice once I'm done preparing for something fun."

He sighed and headed inside, pausing to catch the single shell that fell from the top of the door frame when the door opened. Zero collected a few effects and a bag before he headed out again, once again to find Ichiru standing in the hall holding a pad of paper and scribbling furiously on it.

Ichiru held up his notepad: _I don't know what to do with this._

Zero used his left hand to cup Yuuki's familiar atop his head, preventing her from seeing the elaborate letter held up to him. He scanned the writing on it, his eyes slowly widening as he progressed further down the page. Once he was done he took the letter, folded it back up, and exchanged it for Ichiru's pad of paper.

He allowed Yuuki unrestricted sight of the area again to write: _It says what to do with it. Do, or don't._

Afterwards he turned away and headed back towards the bridge, only to be held up short by Ichiru's hand seizing his arm. Zero frowned and shot Ichiru a questioning look.

"Do you want me to tell you what to do? I won't. If you can't go off of what I wrote, then... I'd say you have more to lose by staying than to gain by going," Zero said. He gently removed Ichiru's hand from his arm and carried on.

On the other side of the lake, Yuuki blinked. "What was that, Zero?"

"Nothing. Ichiru asked me something private," he answered.

Ichiru watched his brother's retreating back, his feelings mixed. It was rare that he asked for help, and there was a piece of him that felt burned. Only, that exchange wasn't particularly different from what Zero might have said otherwise. It was too blunt to be careful of anybody's feelings, and he'd avoided letting private matters slip to _that woman_. Returning to his room and shutting the door, Ichiru stared at his brother's hastily-written words and wrestled with whether or not he could heed them.

Yuuki had stopped paying attention immediately after she was told what was actually going on. She dragged out a pair of rose gold heels, light and strapped around the ankle, and held them up to her chosen dress. Now she just needed something extra...

"Is he okay?" she asked, absent-mindedly.

"I doubt it, but it's not a 'dangerous' problem, so don't worry about it," he replied.

She hummed thoughtfully, but her mind wasn't with the conversation at that moment. Yuuki selected a deep red shawl and draped it over the shoulders of her dress form. That just about did it.

"This is where you get off," Zero said. She felt his fingers pinch around the wing of her familiar, and the sensation of being deposited... on top of a door frame? Yuuki frowned and shunted her consciousness into the butterfly body, fluttering out to look at the door he was disappearing into. The metalworking shop...?

Yuuki returned to her proper body and scratched her head, coaxing the familiar to rest atop the doorframe again. She surveyed her assembled outfit. It was _almost_ perfect.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It was a few minutes after Zero got started that he was joined by Ichiru. The door opened and closed, and for a couple of moments Zero focused his senses on the room to make certain that familiar hadn't slipped in. He didn't think that Yuuki would actually get nosy about this one, since he'd told her what it was about, but he didn't feel inclined to take chances. After satisfying himself with his sweep, he returned to what he was doing. Several lengths of copper wire were stretched out on a bench in front of him, joined by a rod with a hole drilled through the end of it. He had a drill laid out, along with a coffee can that contained only five bullets.

"Still looking for advice?" he wondered, without looking at his brother.

Ichiru sat down on a stool and heaved an aggravated sigh. "No. Yes. It's more like I need to spin thoughts at something other than the inside of my own mind."

"Ah."

Zero tested each length of wire, settled on the longest of the bunch, and began to thread it lightly through the hole in the rod.

"She's right, isn't she? That I don't know how to be liked," Ichiru grumbled, picking up one of the remaining lengths of wire and fidgeting with it aimlessly.

"No," Zero replied.

Ichiru looked confused. "No? What do you mean no?"

"She was couching it in terms that wouldn't make you run away. You know how to be liked. You're quite popular," Zero said. He fixed the rod to the drill.

The noise that Ichiru made was grumpy and dissenting. The conversation halted while Zero ran the drill, guiding the wire into the shape of a tight coil. Once he got to the end of it he stopped, picked up some bolt cutters, and snipped the part of the coil threaded through the rod. Afterwards he extracted the coil from the end of the rod.

"So you think I should go, then?"

"Define your parameters," Zero said.

"Are you framing this as a _sortie_?" Ichiru asked, incredulously.

"What is your goal?"

Ichiru got up and swept up and down the room like an agitated cat. He didn't know why he had come to Zero for this kind of advice. Even when he said the right things, his brother said them like a battering ram. Was that what he needed just now? He brought himself to a halt down the workbench from Zero. "Not to burn bridges, I suppose."

"Then go," Zero said. "If you want somebody to stop in and check on you, I'll come by."

"That's not necessary," Ichiru said, straightening up and looking rather ruffled.

"It's not," Zero agreed. He began to snip the coiled copper wire, producing links that he neatly arranged in a line on the stretch of bench in front of him. "Even so. Why come to me for this kind of advice?"

"You can't be serious," Ichiru replied, even more aggravated by Zero's lack of perception. When his brother didn't answer, he said, "Because despite having the outwardly emotive capacity of a **pet rock** , you've managed to fall down several flights of stairs into a functional relationship."

"... When Yuuki asks for my feelings, I do what I can to give her something, even when it makes me want to run away. That's all," Zero said.

"You say that like it's easy," Ichiru growled, frustratedly.

Zero finished snipping the copper wire and shook his head. "It's easy to say such a thing to you. You're the one person I've always been open to. I know you think... that I'm just looking down on you, Ichiru. I'm not good at talking, but that doesn't mean I don't understand others. The fact that I **can** understand makes it more difficult, since I can only make myself understood by forcing myself to say things that make me uncomfortable."

He took a deep breath. Even with Ichiru, what he had to say wasn't something that he liked to voice. "Not all of our problems can be solved by making a decision. But we... do sometimes have to decide that we're going to do what makes us happy, and damn the consequences. That girl already decided to take that stand, and she wanted you to follow... or to let her know that you weren't ever going to."

A full minute of near-silence passed while Zero loosely bound links together into a chain. Ichiru found himself staring at the motion, repetitive but deliberate. He wasn't doing it tightly, either-- the project wasn't finished. Astounded, Ichiru asked, "Are you... making **jewelry**?"

"Something like that," Zero confirmed.

Ichiru tugged the coffee can towards him, looking inside. "This is just expended brass."

"Yeah."

"You," Ichiru continued, "are making your girlfriend jewelry out of **shells** while I twist myself in knots trying to decide if I want to visit a house full of vampires."

"Ichiru, we've visited a house full of vampires every winter of our lives," Zero said, picking up the coffee can and removing it out of arm's reach of his brother.

"You--" Ichiru bristled, but he didn't have anything to say about it. That was exactly right. His shoulders sagged in defeat.

"Ichiru," Zero said, firmly.

Ichiru raised his head and straightened up, looking at Zero.

"I'm glad," he said.

"You're... glad? Of what?" Ichiru wondered.

"I'm glad that you felt you could talk to me like this," Zero clarified.

Ichiru snorted and made for the door.

"Thanks," he mumbled awkwardly, and left.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Kaien Cross sat at his desk, poring over applications for entry during the next term. Their numbers had improved in the Night class, though the Day class was merely holding steady. The majority of the new names were commoners, and a deeply cynical part of him wondered whether or not they were simply looking for an opportunity to network. Even if that _was_ the case, though... he supposed it wasn't such a bad thing. The results so far had been **absolutely adorable**. As much trouble as they'd been, Claudia and Kichirou were very much a success story.

He flipped to the next file over, and just at that moment... a crow flew through his window and landed on his desk. Kaien blinked. He knew at once who it was, though she was a little bit later than expected.

A cloud of crows came crashing in, collapsing together to form a brown-haired woman. The difference between Juri and her daughter in outward appearance was minimal; the primary division was demeanor, projected experience. In this, Juri looked a little more reserved, and perhaps a bit sad, though that didn't define the nature of her behavior. She hugged Kaien sidelong, around the shoulders.

"I'm sorry I was slow in getting here. I kept an eye on Haruka for a little while before I set out, since I heard Ylva and Shiro had fallen in and helped get things under control," Juri said, warmly.

"Ah! No, no, it's fine," Kaien said, blushing lightly at the contact, but reciprocating her hug one-armed. "We had things under control, tho' I had to unleash Achaea to deal with the dogpile that person attempted against me. The worst that happened was..."

Juri nodded. "Yes. Well... I wouldn't call it a bad thing, exactly."

She seated herself on the edge of Kaien's desk, shaking back her hair and breathing a sigh of relief. "You know... if you ever get tired of growing old yourself..."

Kaien smiled thinly. "I'm not afraid of death, Juri. And this body of mine is still working just fine."

Juri nodded and hummed thoughtfully. "If everything is going alright, then I think I'll just look in on Yuuki myself later. For now... how is our research going? Haruka and I have been using the tablets, but they still taste bland, so we just end up switching back to each other."

"A-ah, well... they'd probably be tastier with blood from a pureblood, but..."

"Whoever did it would be insinuating their being into the drinkers," she finished the thought for him. "Have we been able to alleviate any other problem areas?"

"Yes," Kaien confirmed, "but it's still in early testing. Specifically, overdeveloped feeding urges and extreme UV allergies in certain formerly human vampires. We've been testing it on level E that have gone fully feral. The results are promising, but there's still a gap to bridge. We can bring them back from total incoherence to the early 'end' stage, but not back to true self-actualization. Trials on stable vampires are waiting until we're certain the side-effects are managed within acceptable bounds."

"Side-effects?"

Kaien pulled his glasses off and cleaned them absent-mindedly. "Appetite suppression is tricky. You don't want it to go all the way down to nothing, or else you don't know when you're unhealthy. It's the same principle as the body needing to experience pain. We've managed to get ferals back from animalistic to conversationally homicidal and expressing specific feeding preferences. But after about a month they lose all forward motivation. As you're aware, ferals are entirely driven by feeding impulses. It's hard to get a proper diagnosis from them, but the eventual lack of response seems to speak for itself."

Juri smiled. "Just getting a feral talking again is a tremendous leap, Kaien. That's very promising. We've come an awfully long way from the 'cure' that my father passed down to us."

A look of guilt passed across Kaien's features. He nodded, slowly. "Yes... I wish we'd kept that a bit closer to the chest. Isaya..."

Shaking her head, Juri laid a hand across Kaien's shoulder and said, "What we're doing is for everyone, but not everyone will choose it. Isaya's family lived an awfully long life already. Just because we're trying to give everyone as much time as they like, doesn't mean they won't eventually have their fill and be done. Your life... even with so few years, hasn't it been tiring? If I offered you more..."

"If **Juri** offered me more, I would take it," Kaien said, quite seriously.

Juri slid off of the desk and ruffled Kaien's hair affectionately in passing, circling to the opposite side of the desk. "Not 'more years', but 'more years with you', is it? I'm sorry... I mustn't tease you so. If you feel badly for Isaya, you should go and speak to him. He's due to wake up next year. Perhaps he would like to stop being an observer on the sidelines, too."

"You're... not ready to go yet, are you?" Kaien asked, hesitantly.

Humming thoughtfully, Juri paused and drummed her nails against the edge of the chair next to her. "No... I wouldn't be greatly troubled if my life ended soon. If I had to make the decision to trade my life for something very valuable, that's a price that I could pay. But it isn't something that I'm looking forward to yet, so please don't worry."

Kaien sighed in relief and leaned forward against his desk. "Y-you're so worrisome sometimes, you know..."

"I know," Juri said, but she didn't sound particularly apologetic this time. "Which rooms are free?"

"Ah... Shiro and Ylva are occupying the near left, Yuuki and Zero are in the far right. You might consider the far left or the near right," Kaien suggested.

"I'll go and say hello," Juri said, waving at Kaien. She stepped out of his study and shut the door behind her.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Zero concealed his incomplete project with a rattle, closing the coffee can and depositing it in his bag. He emerged from the shop and coaxed the familiar off of the top of the doorway back onto his head. The butterfly crawled down the side of his head, settling down on the collar of his shirt as he walked. At the fork back to the dorms, he paused.

"Your mother's here. What are you doing at the Moon dorm?" he asked the butterfly.

"O-oh, um... just getting together some things to move to our room. And a little bit of a surprise," Yuuki said.

"Ah."

He continued down towards the Sun dorm, and took the turn-off towards the Chairman's house. It was a familiar path, its history to him stretching back beyond Cross Academy itself. At the time it had still been a school, but there were no vampires being instructed there. Hunters were occasionally part of the student body, but many of those that might have returned were withdrawn by their parents. Even if they trusted Kaien tentatively, they definitely didn't trust vampires.

In those days, the gatehouses were left open. The Moon dorm was used as guest housing for any unusual visitors, or for event space if need be. Zero remembered walking down this trail with Ichiru, excited for the visit. When they were the first to arrive he'd linger on the stairs nearest the door with Ichiru, waiting for the Kuran. 'Excited'... that was such a strange feeling. He hadn't felt it in an awfully long time, and it wasn't the memory of it that brought it back to mind, though it bolstered and reinforced the feeling. The reason for it was, of course...

"Yuuki," he said.

"Eh?" The butterfly answered.

"I really **am** looking forward to it," Zero said. He had told her this before but he said such things so rarely that while the feeling lingered in him, he wanted to say it aloud.

The butterfly made a pleased noise.

Zero went inside. The aural silhouette of Juri Kuran was above him, along with those of the three hunters. Only his father's silhouette was of relatively ordinary gravity; he was the lone 'average hunter' biologically in this house. They were all dwarfed by Juri, though-- just as Yuuki drowned everyone else out. He ascended the stairs, the buzz of chatter echoing down from the hallway above.

It paused briefly when he reached the top of the steps. Ylva and Juri looked down the hallway at him. Zero could see Juri's attention turn to the butterfly at his collar. A few seconds later Zero was entering his room with a crow on one shoulder and a butterfly on the other, his jacket slung over his elbow.

"... So you're both doing okay, then?" The crow asked.

"Having my heart torn out was really weird," The butterfly complained.

"I'm fine," Zero said.

"Hmmm... you know, maybe you should get some of the worse 'deaths' out of the way..." Juri mused.

"N-no way!" Yuuki protested.

"It's not the worst idea, but I wouldn't force her to do it," Zero weighed in.

"This isn't a vote," Yuuki hissed.

"Can you tell me anything about the attacker?" Juri asked.

"... Yeah. There is the one thing," Zero said. The longer he put it off the more jarring it was going to be when he told them. So he explained how one of the familiars had approached him and tried to command him to commit suicide.

The butterfly on his left shoulder practically vibrated with agitation; the crow on his right clicked its beak.

"What did this person feel like, to your senses?" Juri asked, tentatively.

"Oppressive, malicious, spiteful. He'd spread himself out to mask his presence, but he clearly wanted to be recognized as present. Based on his prior objectives, coming after me didn't make much sense," Zero said.

"Ah, on top of that... he seemed to think I was you, mother," Yuuki said. After a short pause, she added, "Actually, he was really upset that I smelled like a hunter, too. He said I reeked."

Juri's familiar relocated to the back of the chair beside the vanity, surveying the butterfly. "I'll discuss this with the others. Please put it out of your mind for now. In the meantime I'd like to provide you with a few spells that I prepared. Or rather, I will once I'm done with the Kiryu. I've brought several tiles inscribed with protective wards, and I'd like you to use them whenever you are outside one of our places of power for long. That is to say, outside of Cross Academy or the residences of Kuran or Kiryu. They can be laid in front of or underneath any portal -- a door, a window -- and they will bar entry. You will need to push qi into them to activate them, but they otherwise require no thaumaturgical maintenance."

"Tiles..." Zero deposited his bag next to the bed and began to collect dirty clothing into his laundry bag. The crow returned to his shoulder as he hauled the load downstairs towards the laundry room. "I've never heard of 'thaumaturgical tiles'. Metal inlays, but those are more permanent. Is this your own creation?"

"Don't you know anything about this person, mother?" Yuuki wondered, unfooled by the shift of topic.

"I'm not sure," Juri said, and that was perfectly true. "Our lineage is among the oldest, Yuuki. It need only be a fairly direct relation to accomplish that, and among the remaining Pureblood lines... there aren't a lot of choices. But there have always been rumors of lost Princes and Princesses. I know enough that what Zero told me is a solid lead, but I'm not willing to commit to a culprit's identity without looking into it properly. We mustn't panic and cease to live. And yes, the thaumaturgical tiles are my innovation."

"Please show Ichiru. He is a hemothaumaturgy enthusiast," Zero requested.

"I'd be delighted," Juri said, happily.

Yuuki made a worried noise, and then gave a start. "Hey, that's _my_ laundry!"

"... Yes?" Zero replied.

"Don't just pick through a lady's things!"

"You aren't 'a lady'," he said.

"Wh... wha," Yuuki sputtered.

"Do you two have any requests for the kitchen?" Zero asked.

"Would it be too much to ask for tempura?" Juri wondered.

The butterfly had risen up and started furiously beating its wings against Zero's cheek.

"No, that's fine. Yuuki--" Zero looked at the butterfly. "This is... something I can do without reservation, so..." 

The butterfly stopped abruptly and settled back down. Yuuki mumbled something inaudible.

Zero finished loading the laundry and moved on to the kitchen. He lifted one of Kaien's aprons from its hook, rolled up his sleeves, and then paused at the sight of himself reflected in a darkened window. "Are you two going to stay there?"

"Yes," Juri's familiar said.

"Mhm," Yuuki's familiar agreed.

"... Alright then," Zero said, resigned. He supposed he ought to have asked them to go if he wasn't going to leave the option open for staying.

Ichiru came in around twenty minutes later with his hemothaumaturgy sketchbook tucked under his arm. He peeked into the kitchen in reaction to the sounds coming from within, but stopped dead in response to what he saw.

Zero cast a flat, expressionless look towards his brother. The butterfly and crow were still on his shoulders.

Ichiru mouthed something that Zero was sure was a vulgar questioning of the situation.

"We're having tempura. Come back down in around forty," Zero said.

"... I'll wait down here," Ichiru said. He seated himself in the adjacent dining room so he could watch the kitchen.

Zero sighed.

It wasn't long before Shiro, Ylva, and Kaien came downstairs and joined Ichiru as spectators. The sound of the front door opening and closing as Yuuki came inside was heard, but she headed straight upstairs to talk to her mother. She offered only a passing smile through the doorway as she went past.

If somebody had asked Zero, he would've characterized the demeanor of the two familiars on his shoulders as _incredibly_ smug from that point onwards.

"Is Haruka coming?" he asked, around the time he was laying out plates.

"He wants to make it, but he has business to attend to. I doubt they'll manage to tie him up for the whole winter holiday," Juri replied.

Zero nodded.

"By the way... even though we're connected, one of Yagari's apprentices has to have thought of the possibility that my husband was the one who sent those familiars. Why didn't you say so?" Juri wondered.

"Palpably different intent. Mr. Kuran's scary side is still rational, and his fury is cold. This person was making mistakes Haruka wouldn't, and shared familiars aren't always the same. 'Wolves and bats' from a person with two sides is different from 'wolves and bats' that are a result of a feral nature," Zero explained.

"Father's bats are very cuddly! The ones that came after us were mean," Yuuki added, in support.

"Additionally... the Kuran aren't the kind of Pureblood family that do this sort of thing," Zero added. "Yuuki's grandfather was famously magnanimous. There aren't that many Pureblood families left that are right in the head."

"And what would you say this familiar says about me, Zero?" Juri asked.

Zero snorted. He replied, "Crows. Cleverness and mischief."

The crow familiar cawed in what Zero _assumed_ was amusement. Ichiru and Kaien jumped at the sharp noise. 

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It was a couple of hours later by the time everyone decided to find their way back to their respective spaces in the house. Zero took the time to move the laundry into the dryer, and found Yuuki waiting for him at the top of the stairs a short while later. He gave her an inquiring look, but she just fell in at his side and leaned against him as they passed through the doorway. She locked the door behind them with a quick twist.

Once the door was closed Yuuki wrapped her arms tightly around Zero and pressed her face into his chest. He looked down at her uncertainly, holding Yuuki lightly and awaiting an explanation.

"Did that person... really try to make you kill yourself?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"But you disobeyed," Yuuki said.

Zero made an affirmative noise.

Yuuki looked up into Zero's face, an expression of fear dominating her features. "Then... I'd like your permission to try to give you an order now."

"Okay," he said.

Taking a deep breath, Yuuki nodded and took a step back from Zero. Summoning up her will, she pressed her psychic presence forward against him and commanded, " **Give me Bloody Rose**."

Zero's right hand twitched towards the holster beneath his arm. It had gotten halfway there when it stopped entirely. He could feel her presence acting on his, and he knew that he oughtn't be able to disobey. Not just that, but there was a part of him that was deeply content with -- even desired -- being commanded. But there was something stronger in him that strained against the command, the same 'something' that denied the command to die.

It was as if his own shadow had come to life, seized his arm by the wrist, and forced him to stop.

"Zero...?" Yuuki frowned. " **Give me Bloody Rose**."

"No," he said.

"... No?!" Yuuki exclaimed.

Zero nodded. "No."

Yuuki walked around Zero in a circle, inspecting him carefully. There was nothing about him that seemed _physically_ different. His presence was stronger than a hunter should be, but that was the same as Kaien and Ylva. It wasn't unprecedented. She stepped back into his space and sniffed at him audibly, burying her face against his shirt as she tried to detect some difference, some anomaly.

But she couldn't find any, and looked up into his face in bewilderment. "You shouldn't be able to do that. Do you mind if I try another?"

Zero shook his head.

Yuuki pressed a finger to her cheek thoughtfully. "Maybe, um... **pick me up**!"

Again, Zero moved to complete the command-- and again he stopped short. This time it was a bit slower to happen, as if he wasn't quite aware that he was moving at all. He recognized the 'why' immediately, though. The previous command would have hurt Yuuki fairly badly if he'd actually carried it out, and Bloody Rose was developed enough that if it fixed her form it would stay that way for a while. None of these things should have mattered, but as soon as he thought about it he knew that they did.

The 'reason' behind it wasn't even a thought in Yuuki's mind. The beastly part of her that was possessive and territorial growled at the back of her mind, agitated that it could not exercise the right of authority that it was due. She looked up into Zero's face half-awed, half-aggravated, as if a unicorn had just burst into the room and started making a mess of things.

"It's doing something, right? You keep starting to move..." she inquired, uncertainly.

"It is. My body starts to move on its own, but when I think about it at all it stops," Zero explained.

Yuuki nodded and began to unfasten Zero's tie absent-mindedly. "There's nothing wrong with my powers... I was able to command Claudia earlier this year. And it is trying to make you, but you can just shrug it off. Not just me, but this other vampire, too. That shouldn't be possible, but..."

She trailed off and hummed thoughtfully to herself, yanking the tie loose and discarding it on the chair by the vanity. 

"But?" he asked.

"Harness off," Yuuki requested, stepping back to give him space to remove it. "But it makes things a lot easier. I was worried about this when I bit you... most purebloods aren't very light-handed using their authority. Since I bit you, my influence over you is strongest, so if I can't make you do something nobody else is going to be able to. And also--!"

Zero slid out of his harness and hung it on the same chair as his jacket and tie.

"And also, your cooking made me hungry for real, so..." Yuuki smiled up at Zero, expectantly.

"The way you said that, I was expecting something really serious," Zero commented, flatly.

"I **am** really serious," Yuuki agreed, cheerfully. "About being hungry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding the fact that Kaien would accept 'more time' from Juri: This is a very impulsive thing for Kaien to say. He means it, which might make you wonder how I think of his denial of Ai's offer to turn him and save his life. More-or-less, I think he thought his duties were over and he was no longer truly needed. Juri hypothetically making that offer is a lot more romantically charged. He has a much easier time passing the torch to future generations than telling this woman he loves no.
> 
> You might also be wondering exactly what those two are discussing, because it departs significantly from Hino Matsuri's Vampire Knight. One thing that never sat well with me is that Cross Academy transitions from working on coexistence and improvement of the vampire condition to simply curing it entirely. The goal of my Cross Academy encompasses fixing level Es, addressing feeding aggression, reproducing Pureblood longevity, giving Purebloods a clean way out or even a reset, etc. In a way, Cross Academy's ideals are transhumanistic. 
> 
> Because of that, the "cure of vampirism" depicted in Vampire Knight is basically considered crude 1800s surgery that, it just so happens, nobody bothered to innovate on in the intervening time.
> 
> When Zero says that Yuuki 'isn't a lady', what he means is that they're currently living together so it's strange to have that sort of hang-up. I hope you enjoyed Juri and Yuuki harassing Zero through their familiars as much as I enjoyed the mental image of it all.


	5. Winter Break I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Content Warnings:** Well, none really, but there is some talk about condoms and sex drive I thought I should mention since what constitutes NSFW varies from place to place.

* * *

The last of Cross Academy's finals had come and gone, the marks that its students would receive on them a mystery until near the beginning of the next term. Students who were planning to return home to visit family had gathered their belongings and were waiting in the front lobby; those who were in the process of being received were out on the drive, hauling luggage to waiting cars and being greeted by their guardians. There was a faint buzz of chatter that filled the air; brief goodbyes, sharing of plans, invitations.

The trunk of the car slammed shut as Zero secured the last of their luggage. It wasn't much, all told. Each of them had secrets concealed within, but most of what they packed were clothes for their date and more casual clothes for the day after.

On this particular occasion the pair were dressed for the weather. Zero wore his usual long sleeved button-down and slacks with a warm, heavy overcoat that Yuuki suspected concealed a few nasty surprises for anybody that happened to disturb them violently. As for Yuuki, she wore a warm knitted dress in burgundy with black leggings and knee-high boots, accompanied by a soft grey jacket of middling length.

Zero turned about and leaned against the trunk, nodding at Yuuki. "Do you want to drive this time?"

"Um, well..." Yuuki hesitated. Zero had been teaching her along the roads immediately surrounding Cross Academy, and she felt reasonably comfortable with operating a vehicle within that context. On the other hand, it was a fairly long drive down to Berchtold, and once they got there she'd have to deal with actual traffic and pedestrians.

"We could switch in a while if you'd like to try but aren't sure," he offered.

"Alright," she agreed.

A few minutes later they were rumbling down the road. Zero sat in the passenger seat, arms folded, eyes shut.

"Did you want me to drive just because you were tired? You could have said so..." Yuuki grumped, sparing only a glance towards Zero.

"No," he said. "We can talk, if you want."

"Hmm... well... there wasn't anything in particular." Yuuki admitted. After giving it a moment's thought, she asked, "What are you going to study in your higher-level classes? Your career is already laid out in front of you, so you don't need to worry about that... but is there anything you're dreaming about?"

"No," Zero said. "I said so already, though. I don't... have a dream of my own."

Yuuki's face fell. "That's a really sad thing to say, Zero. Are you sure? There's nothing you can think of that you want to do besides your job?"

Zero opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling of the car. "Well..."

"Hmm?" Yuuki urged him.

"If I could... be the 'strongest defender', and not the 'strongest killer', that would be ideal," he said.

"That's a really fine line, Zero. And it's still pretty grim, isn't it?" Yuuki asked.

"There are other things, but they don't have much to do with professions. They're embarrassing to discuss," Zero replied.

Yuuki glanced at him. "But shouldn't we be able to talk about embarrassing things honestly?"

"I suppose," Zero said. He was silent for several long moments. It had been a while since Yuuki had experienced one of these frustrating gaps in conversation; things had been so emotionally intense for a while that his barriers had been low. Now that he had recovered some of his energy, it seemed hard to him not to use it to be guarded.

Inhaling deeply, he said, "Eventually, I'd definitely like to start a family."

"T-that's... well, it's kind of embarrassing, but only because..." Yuuki flashed a shy smile. "That is, I hope you..."

Zero shot her an aggravated look, his face tinged faintly pink. He said, "It's not as if I'd get involved with you hoping we'd fall apart eventually." The tone of Zero's voice was at complete odds with his expression.

"It doesn't... it doesn't happen often, in cases like ours," Yuuki said, reassuringly. She wished he hadn't been driving, she wanted to cover her face.

"Falling apart?" he asked.

"Mhm," she confirmed.

"Why is that?"

"W-w-well, it's... you know how I'm really tasty to you?" Yuuki asked.

Zero nodded.

"And you know you're delicious to me?"

Again, he nodded.

"We're a bit psychic. Just like we can taste memories in blood, we can smell the things that we appreciate in people," Yuuki explained. "Out of everyone in Cross Academy, is there anyone at all who smells as nice as me to you?"

"No," Zero said, truthfully. There were other people he'd be 'comfortable' drinking from, but he couldn't think of a single person who even began to compare. Even with the 'bonus' of being a Pureblood, Yuuki's brother smelled bland to him.

"That's exactly why. Vampires have an easier time identifying compatible people than humans do, so once we find someone who find us as irresistibly tasty as we find them, it usually sticks," Yuuki concluded.

"Is it possible for two people to smell equally nice to the same person?" he asked.

"Not really," she said. "You can get close, but there's always one who is 'addicting' and one who is just 'very nice' in those situations."

Zero looked at Yuuki properly. "You told me you were addicted to me, once."

Yuuki nodded rapidly.

"I think... I would go mad without your blood, Yuuki," Zero admitted.

Yuuki was quiet for a long while, focusing on her driving, trying not to think too deeply about everything they had just said. True, she was the one who insisted on pushing into embarrassing territory, but still! She thought she would be the steady one between them in a situation like this one.

After a while, she asked, "Do you think about starting a family often?"

Zero looked towards Yuuki, and then back out the windshield. "Often enough. But it wasn't... really a thing that seemed possible, either."

"You haven't always thought that way," Yuuki pointed out. "What changed?"

He shrugged. "I don't mind telling you that, but are you sure you want to hear it?"

"There's nothing about you that I want hidden from me," Yuuki answered, determinedly.

Zero smiled faintly. "Alright. It was a few years after Ichiru and I started being formally trained... Kaito was a little older, so he had already become a regular Associate. Most of our schooling at that point was private, but Toga used a school in Berchtold to do things that needed that sort of space. Mathematics, for instance. The nurse at that school..."

Breathing deeply, he continued, "She was Yagari's fiancée. Ichiru and I were friendly with her, for a while. But at some point along the way a pureblood bit her, and she managed to hide it for the longest time. One day, she started to lose it, so..."

An uneasiness settled into the pit of Yuuki's stomach. Her hands tightened uncomfortably on the wheel. "Yagari... came to kill her, then?"

"Yeah... but Ichiru and I didn't really get it, and I got in the way. He had to clear us out first, when she finally lost all control. That's how my teacher lost his eye," Zero said. He ran his right hand along the armrest absent-mindedly, wrestling with the discomfort of talking about it all. "He didn't cry about it, but I... saw the look on his face the moment after she came at me from behind."

He sighed. "You asked once, if Yagari taught 'to distrust vampires'. Yes, but... not as loudly as someone like Kaito would have you believe. Even if we apprentices couldn't see that woman we trusted was compromised... do you really think the legendary hunter would?"

Yuuki couldn't even imagine it. She had been the one to bite Zero, but... that person who went after him would have done it too, if he'd been in a body that would've allowed it. It wouldn't have been hard for the same thing to happen to him. What about Professor Yagari's fiancée, too? She must have been clinging to the fleeting instants that she had left, chasing after just one more breath where she was herself. She blinked away the beginnings of tears and swallowed harshly, trying not to let her reaction show too much.

"There were other things after that, but that was the turning point," Zero concluded.

"I-it's not... it's not that you 'could' stand against a hurricane, then, is it? You've already done it," Yuuki said, shakily.

Zero made a noise, neither affirming or denying. "Is this really... the sort of thing you want from me?"

"Yes," Yuuki said, resolutely. She wiped at her face awkwardly with a sleeve. "Yes. Even though it's greedy and troublesome, I want everything of Zero. The sad things, not just the happy ones. If something is a burden, then I want to share it. I..."

He laid his hand over Yuuki's before she could complete the thought, bringing her up short. It was a light touch, his left hand atop her right on the steering wheel. It helped her calm down, let her relax her grasp on the wheel and ease the tension out of her arms. Once her heart rate was **only** mildly out of sorts did he lean back.

"It's fine," Zero said. "I'm greedy and troublesome, too. But maybe..."

"Maybe?" she asked.

"Maybe we shouldn't have conversations like this during long drives," he suggested.

Yuuki laughed and nodded. "Maybe. But I asked, and I'm happy you answered."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Ichiru joined Maria on the front drive, a shoulder bag hanging on his left side and his suitcase held in his right hand. He looked vaguely uncomfortable, though most of his intense discomfort had evaporated over the previous night. It also wasn't particularly easy to remain on edge with the way Maria was carrying herself right now.

Standing to Ichiru's right, Maria was dressed in a _very_ fuzzy pajama set that had a coloration pattern resembling that of an osprey, complete with a hood. She had the hood up at the moment, and wore a blanket over her shoulders like a cloak. She swayed on the spot, not truly unsteady but certainly in the realm of clearly wanting to go back to bed. The only clothing that was normal-ish for outdoor travel was her boots, which were her usual chunky affair, only he could see she was carrying fuzzy slippers to change into at some point.

"Why are we going so early in your morning if it makes you this uncomfortable?" he asked.

Maria leaned back a bit to look up at Ichiru without losing the protective shade of her hood too badly. She smiled dreamily and replied, "By the time we get there, it'll be proper waking hours for me."

"Ah."

"Also," Maria rolled her neck with several prominent pops, "I'm not 'uncomfortable', that's why I'm dressed to **be** comfortable. While everyone else is spending effort trying to be presentable, I'm going to rest up for the good parts later."

Ichiru nodded. A car with unusually dark rear windows, even for a vampire's transportation, rolled up to the curb nearest them. The porters moved forward and took their heavier bags, while the driver emerged to open the door for Maria.

Maria padded over to the door. "My friend is joining us today. Please be courteous to him."

Then she disappeared inside. Ichiru followed after her, pausing to share a quick glance with the driver.

The inside of the limo was quite dark, but Ichiru could make out that the bench seat along the right side had been replaced by something more akin to a bed. It had straps like those you might find on a train's sleeper car, to prevent whoever was in it from rolling out. Maria was in the middle of crawling down the length of it.

He seated himself on the opposite bench, which had the same straps but wasn't quite so custom-fitted to serve as a bed. Sliding his sword from his waist, Ichiru stowed it along the bottom of the seats. The weapon had been wrapped carefully so that the hilt couldn't be touched unintentionally, and the weapon wouldn't be drawn from its sheath by anything but a serious effort of strength.

Ichiru knew he could do it if he needed to, although the change to accommodate Maria's presence did make it more difficult for him. She flopped down on the bench, dragging a pillow out from beneath the seats and burying her face in it.

He shut his eyes and waited. The car began to move slowly, held up by some of the surrounding traffic.

"Ichiru?" Maria turned her head to face him. Her face was still partly shrouded in that hood, and a prominent yellow bead that stood in for a hawk's eye glinted lightly atop her hood.

"What?"

She squeezed her pillow, a little nervously. "I know it's hard for you to make yourself vulnerable like this. Thank you for putting so much effort into making me happy."

"You're welcome," Ichiru said, stiffly.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

About midway through the trip they switched drivers, and arrived at Berchtold around mid-afternoon.

It was, Zero reflected, obnoxiously bright for him at the moment. He could deal with it, but he wished he'd invested in sunglasses before this trip. He glanced sidelong at Yuuki, who had shut her eyes. Asking her where they would be staying had slipped his mind, but he decided to let her sleep just a few more minutes. He needed to find a grocer or corner store anyway.

Yuuki stirred awake when Zero parked them beside a drug store, stretching uncomfortably in her seat. She looked over at him through a curtain of slightly disheveled hair and mumbled, "Are we there?"

"No. Just a supply run," he said. "But I'll need to know where I'm going after."

"Mmn. I'll come with," Yuuki said, unbuckling and climbing out of the car.

The bell of the drug store jingled cheerily as they entered. A portly older man, grey-bearded and a bit overdressed in a waistcoat, slacks, and shining cufflinks greeted them from behind the counter with a friendly wave and an offer of assistance.

"Ah! Actually, I could use some help... do you..." Yuuki went up to the front counter and started chatting with the man while Zero carried on into the back of the store with a basket tucked underneath his arm.

Zero collected a large jug of water and a loaf of bread before he moved on to the section of the store he was actually here for. He wasn't particularly embarrassed about it, though it still had an awkward quality to it that he hadn't really rolled around in his head much until just now. He supposed it was probably normal for somebody his age to have condoms around 'just in case', but...

He hadn't really ever had such a 'just in case' in mind. It wasn't as if he was ever going to subject an ordinary woman to his life. Yuuki... well, it isn't as if he didn't appreciate the way she looked, and she had the sort of character he favored. A bright spirit, kind, and a little more mischievous than people were often willing to admit... Zero supposed that he had been in denial. No one else was surprised by them, or if they were, they were hiding it. Ichiru had objected, but-- was he surprised? Zero doubted it.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Zero returned to the task at hand. Twelve to a box... outside interval of taking a trip to town was ninety days. He quickly came to the conclusion that he needed enough of these to make it look like he had some **very** unreasonable expectations. Even then, it was possible he was undershooting for the time period he was purchasing for.

Heaving a sigh, Zero collected eight boxes and carried on back to the front. When he emerged at the end of the aisle a bright flash left him seeing spots and blinking rapidly at the source.

Yuuki stood at the end of the aisle with a pop-open instant camera in her hands. She laughed at Zero's expression and whipped the developing photograph out, falling in at Zero's side. "I thought now would be a great time for a new camera. Hmm..."

She held up the partially-developed photo, in which Zero looked rather dazed. "What do you think? Should we keep this one?"

"I don't know," Zero said, blinking several more times to normalize his sight. He took his basket to the register.

The older gentleman behind the counter glanced down into it, and then up towards the pair of them. "Making memories, eh?"

Yuuki smiled and nodded enthusiastically, not having yet spared a glance at the contents of the basket.

Zero nodded curtly and managed to get through the rest of the transaction without drawing Yuuki's attention too closely to what was being bought.

Once they were back in the car, Yuuki remarked, "He was nice! I wonder why he thought of it that way, though..."

Zero passed her the bag and started the car without comment.

Blinking, Yuuki glanced in the bag. She felt like a wildfire was spreading across her face. "Hey... j-just what do you think is going to happen--"

"Three months," he explained.

Yuuki managed to put the pieces together without clarification this time. She frowned and opened the bag wider. "Twelve per box... that's ninety six for around ninety days. Hmm... is that going to be enough...?"

"If you're worried about it, decide by the time we're leaving tomorrow night," Zero said, finally reaching a point of discomfort that his face began to burn as well.

She made a noise of discontent and shook her head. "It's not like I'm the only one whose opinion matters there, Zero..."

"Where am I driving?"

"It's the big one in the middle of town, but don't change the subject--"

Zero pulled out of the parking space. "I'm not. It isn't something I can quantify on short notice."

Yuuki looked out the window and rested her cheek against her hand. "W-well... um... let's think of it this way: We both usually want a drink at least once a day, right?"

"Yeah..."

Zero grunted in grudging agreement.

"S-so," Yuuki lowered her hand and fidgeted with her fingers, "if we agree we at least get in the mood at least once a day, what you bought is the bare minimum if we don't make it back to town for another three months. But neither of us has..."

She rolled a shoulder uncomfortably. "Neither of us has done anything with anybody else, and we don't have to worry about diseases. So it's just for if we... if we..."

"Having trouble now?" Zero teased her, half-heartedly.

"Y-you! You don't get to say things like that while I'm doing all the talking!" Yuuki exclaimed, thumping Zero lightly on the elbow.

Zero sighed. "Fine. Give me a minute."

Yuuki knew she was in for a longer wait than that if Zero was bothering to specify a time period he'd be quiet while considering it. By the time he started speaking again, she could see the hotel she'd chosen looming in the distance.

"Assuming that we consider more than food every time we have a meal until late March, we need a minimum of slightly under what I already purchased. If usual circumstances hold midterms and finals will keep one or both of us unusually tired from a combination of prefect duty and exams. That's two weeks where 'opportunity' and 'energy' drops significantly, but all of that is dodging the real question," Zero raised his eyes towards the distant hotel.

 **The Grand Berchtold** was incredibly high-end. The only occasions Zero had to be there were when the ballrooms were being used for events he was a part of, and even then he hadn't ventured far. It was a stark contrast with the sorts of places he stayed when he had to, though he thought motels had a charm of their own.

"The real question is whether or not 'food' has ever been unaccompanied by a desire to do anything more," he concluded.

"Y-you... answer that first," Yuuki mumbled.

Zero nodded. "No."

"No you won't answer or--" 

"No," Zero clarified, "I've always wanted more than a bite. Sometimes I was tired or distracted enough not to pursue the feeling, but..."

Yuuki nodded, staring at her lap. "Me, too. It just feels like a natural way for things to go."

Zero turned into The Grand Berchtold's drive and pulled up to the curb, turning off the car. He reached over towards Yuuki's side of the car and snagged the camera out of her bag. She blinked and looked towards him just in time for the flash to go off.

"W-wha..."

"You were making a cute face," he explained, taking the photo from the slot it had emerged from.

Yuuki snatched the camera back and took a photo of her own immediately, glaring at Zero over the top of it.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

It wasn't until they transitioned from car to train that Maria really started to wake up. She looked surprisingly in place dressed in her osprey pajamas, with Ichiru trailing behind her into the private compartment she had booked. As soon as they were inside she latched the door and drew the curtains, seating herself at the end of a bench seat that obviously unfolded into a bed. There was a small table in the center of the car, between the two benches.

Ichiru seated himself across from her and stowed his weapon carefully again, depositing his shoulder bag to his left. This was nicer accommodation than he was used to. It wasn't as if his family was poor, but it was unusual for hunters to be as wealthy as the vampires they generally opposed. They would've only booked something like this if they were really intending to be traveling for a while... and they'd probably cram all four in here, to boot.

"We should get you something to eat," Maria said, lowering her hood. It was a different look for her. Her hair wasn't drawn up in the usual style, instead allowed to rest as it naturally did, save for the messiness that had occurred while she slept in the car. Although he never would have described Maria as carrying herself the way most vampires did, there was still a certain deliberate elegance built into the way she dressed and looked ordinarily that was missing today, and it was more than a little disarming.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Mm. You're l-y-i-n-g," Maria replied, smiling knowingly. She got up and slid across to the opposite bench, seating herself beside Ichiru. She tugged on his arm insistently. "This ticket comes with meals. Let's go sit in the dining car."

Ichiru sighed and reached for his bonded weapon, but Maria grabbed his sleeve and shook her head. "Don't worry so much. The only person more dangerous than me on this train is you. And I _think_ you might be able to overpower me with a butterknife."

"If you insist," Ichiru agreed, grudgingly.

"I do," Maria said. Very tentatively she reached for Ichiru's hand, allowing him the opportunity to draw away or otherwise deny her. Today, he didn't. She kept her grip loose and leading rather than tight and intimate, getting up and pulling him out of the compartment.

It was a strange sensation for Ichiru. He wasn't really altogether comfortable, but he had already committed himself to playing nicely and doing his best to accommodate Maria. Although she had _said_ she didn't expect him to present himself as her boyfriend, what she had said already had shed more light on that than he expected she intended to. Even so her hand closing around his were warmer than he expected, and the contact was subtly electric.

The dining car was mostly deserted. Maria pulled Ichiru into a small table on the far end of the car, well away from the next nearest occupied table.

Ichiru seated himself in the corner, so that there was nothing but a compartment wall at his back. He expected Maria to sit across from him, but she didn't. She settled in next to him instead, picking up the menu.

The dining car was nice enough, Ichiru supposed. The lighting was warm and low, evoking the imagery of candlelight without actually making use of it. White tablecloths adorned simple tables with upholstered wooden chairs. Crystal seasoning shakers sat beside fresh flowers at the center of the table, accompanied by utensils wrapped in red cloth napkins. Four menus were laid out at each place, and a single dessert card held up on a small silver stand rested at the far center of the table.

They remained quiet until a waiter arrived to take their orders. Ichiru ordered curry and tea; Maria, pelmeni and a milk tea.

"So you like spicy things," Maria observed, conversationally. They hadn't talked much about food preferences or shared many meals so far, since Maria's dietary requirements were so different.

Ichiru nodded. He hesitated a moment, and then said, "We should talk."

"I've been trying to do that for a little while now," she replied. Ichiru thought she sounded amused.

"Are you... making fun of me?"

"I wouldn't do such a thing," Maria said.

Taking a deep breath, Ichiru said, "You're right, I'm sorry. But I need to know what you want from me. Not... what you'll settle for, but what you actually want."

Maria reached past Ichiru to pick up the dessert menu, staring at it intently. She didn't get blushy, or even sound embarrassed. Instead, very seriously, she asked, "Didn't I already tell you? And if you didn't understand, or if you left it alone on purpose, does what I say now matter?"

"Yes," he said, "it does."

She nodded slowly, turning the card over. "Ichiru, I... think you're cute. Your eyes are very pretty, and when you smile for me I feel like my heart is going to tear itself out of my chest. But when you know you're smiling, it's like you suddenly think that maybe what's happening isn't such a happy thing after all."

Gradually, Maria raised her gaze to meet Ichiru's. "I'm not less sick than you are, Ichiru. Sometimes I don't have the energy to be nice, either." She chewed her lip, hesitating a moment before managing to muster the courage to continue. "What I mean is, I'd like to be more than friends, but the way you treat me in your low moments is very painful. And I'm... I'm not strong enough to manage what's wrong with both of us."

"I'm not 'settling' with being friends. You _are_ my friend, and I'm very happy with that. I only need more from you if you want to be more than that. Because I can live with 'I don't have the energy to be nice right now, please give me time to recharge', but what I can't endure," Maria set down the dessert menu and took Ichiru's hand between both of hers. "What I _can't_ handle is feeling like the person I want loving me hates me instead."

Ichiru made an uncomfortable noise, but in spite of himself he did not want to run away. On the contrary, he felt tremendously guilty for his prior behavior. He shouldn't-- he shouldn't feel guilty for being cautious of vampires, he told himself. But he knew that he had taken it beyond that, and struck Maria across the face with it when he knew -- when she'd **told** him she fancied him.

The waiter returned in this inopportune moment, buying both Ichiru and Maria several moments of awkward silence in which their meals and drink orders were laid out in front of them.

When he finally left -- and it felt like he stayed by the table for an eternity -- they both spoke at once.

"You don't have to--" Maria started.

"If we--" Ichiru began.

They both stopped again. Maria looked up at Ichiru and, when he didn't speak, picked up her spoon and lifted it up to hover next to his mouth like it was a microphone.

Ichiru got the message and cleared his throat. "If we... that is, if you don't mind taking things very, very slowly..."

Maria dropped her spoon in shock, but Ichiru snatched it out of the air before it could find the surface of the table.

"O... Okay," she said, shocked.

Ichiru nodded and pressed the spoon back into Maria's hands. "I'm sorry that I've been taking things out on you. It might not seem it, but I do know that I have work to do on myself. I just didn't realize how much."

"Ichiru," Maria said.

"What is it?"

"I, um... just want to warn you that I'm going to need to scream into my pillow for a little bit when we get back to our compartment," she admitted.

It was such a foreign response that Ichiru didn't know what to do with it, and all at once he realized _exactly_ why he was giving this a chance. Why, as much as he felt uncomfortable in his own skin throughout all of this, he couldn't help but reach for Maria as she reached for him. Everything about it seemed encapsulated in this single, raw admission of excitement and celebration.

This woman beside him was excited to be near _him_. It was unqualified by his lineage or abilities; the only 'but' concerned misbehavior that was completely his own responsibility. It had been an awfully long time since Ichiru last felt as if somebody -- even his own parents -- felt excited, or even merely passingly content with some facet of his existence.

"It's fine," Ichiru said, carefully concealing the hitch in his voice.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Yuuki led the way to their room, after Zero had passed off the keys to their car to the valet. The porter accompanying them was dressed in an elaborate red-and-gold uniform and hat, like something out of a film. He pulled the cart containing their luggage onto the lift, smiling politely between the pair of them as they boarded with him. Small talk was exchanged during the ride, which Zero mostly checked out of entirely.

Zero's eyes lingered on the button Yuuki had pushed. It was the top floor, and she didn't correct the choice. That had some problems that Zero didn't care for, but he decided that it wasn't worth getting upset about. It would make long distance assault impossible, at any rate. This building was among the tallest nearby, and none of its immediate neighbors had a floor or roof adjacent to its top.

When the elevator's bell rang and they stepped off, Zero was surprised to find that they were on a floor that had very few doors. Only two had the characteristics of guest rooms, the others looked like an emergency exit and staff area respectively.

Yuuki strode confidently to 1001 and opened the door ahead of the porter.

It was only after the porter had unloaded their luggage and gone that Zero entered the room. Yuuki shut and latched the door behind them.

They were in the most ridiculously expansive hotel room Zero had ever seen. The furniture resembled the sort of artistically comfortable fare that was common in upper class vampire households, though cream-colored upholstery was favored over red. There was a full kitchen and dining table, a wrap-around balcony, a sitting room, and two entirely separate bedrooms. Only one of them resembled what Zero would describe as a hotel room, and he knew immediately that it wasn't the one they would be using.

"Isn't this a little--" Zero began.

Yuuki marched right up to Zero and pressed a finger to his lips. He stopped talking immediately.

"It _is_ a little extravagant," she agreed. "But it's one of the ways I get to make this special. If... we 'only' had a clean motel room to return to, I wouldn't think that was terrible. But this is something I can do, and I've been excited about it."

Lifting herself up on her toes, Yuuki pressed a kiss to Zero's cheek. "I'm going to go get ready. Your corsage should be delivered sometime in the next couple of hours, and I don't want to have to come back until we're going to be in for the night, so we'll go from your surprise to the restaurant, okay?"

Zero nodded, and pressed a kiss to Yuuki's forehead. "Okay."

She padded away, floating her luggage away from the door like a particularly strange cloud. 

Zero began to survey the room around him again. It _was_ nice, and while he expected something a bit too rich for him from Yuuki, this was certainly still even more than he'd imagined. He seized his own suitcase and hauled it into the master bedroom, situating it on a luggage rack and beginning to hang up his own outfit.

"Zeroooo... do you want to help with my nails in a little while?" Yuuki's voice bubbled out from behind the partly-closed bathroom door.

"If you like," he answered.

"Of course _I'd_ like, I'm asking if _you'd_ like," Yuuki answered. He could practically hear the pouting.

"Yes," Zero said. "I enjoy things like that. Washing your hair, too."

Yuuki poked her head around the door. "Really?"

"... Yes? Why do you sound surprised?"

"Well, when you started doing that, I thought: 'Zero must be trying to get this over with quicker because my hair is long'." Yuuki explained. She paused a moment, and decided, "Now I want to wash your hair. Come in here."

He stared at her, blankly.

"I'm serious! Hurry up," she urged him, disappearing back around the door. The sound of water running soon followed.

There were plenty of things about today that Zero had expectations for. Broadly, he thought that he had a solid idea of how it was going to go. This specific turn of events, however, was thoroughly off the edge of his road map. Without another word, he set his prepared outfit aside and slipped into the rapidly steaming bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might be looking at Yuuki and Zero's discussion there and thinking, 'Isn't Zero forgetting something?' Vampires, and Purebloods especially, don't really deal with a human menstrual cycle. While I don't really intend to lean into the weird years-long pregnancy depicted in Matsuri's Vampire Knight, fertility simply works differently for them and they don't really lose it with age.
> 
> About Ichiru's difficulties... much like his canonical counterpart, Ichiru is very wrong about how his parents and even Zero weigh him. They worry about his condition, but none of them are the kind of people that have an easy time with feelings in general, much less for handling the very particular inferiority issues that Ichiru has. Frankly Ichiru needs a therapist, but nobody in that family would think of that.
> 
> Incidentally, Maria is actually a rare case of a vampire who **is** combat trained, even though she's not very physically robust. She's flattering Ichiru a little here, which isn't to say that in terms of skill she's dramatically better than him or anything, but he'd be pretty surprised to learn how comparable she is to him in ability with his chosen weapon. Regarding Maria's condition: While it's compared a lot to Ichiru's, it might go without saying that the causes are very different. Maria's body doesn't process blood completely correctly and doesn't store the derived energy efficiently, so she's basically nutritionally deficient. She suffers a lot of the same effects that we see in Zero while he's deteriorating to level E, minus the mental deterioration.
> 
> Ichiru by contrast has an overall qi deficiency because of the whole "hunter twin" thing. Physically this manifests most directly as chronic anemia, which is why he was quick to tell Maria off when she asked if she could have some of his blood a while back.
> 
> The theme of this chapter is more-or-less 'opening up', although at the moment one side of it is much more awkward than the other. Regarding where things are going overall at the moment-- it's going to be a little bit before we see the Norgaards or Rido again, though the Norgaards will probably come first. Which isn't to say that there won't be any action coming, but I do expect the next couple of chapters at least to remain mostly slice of life-y as we wind through Ichiru, Maria, Yuuki, and Zero's winter breaks and come back around to their broader gathering at Cross Academy. (Oh, and Shizuka and Tomio's, for that matter.)


	6. Winter Break II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays!

* * *

The remainder of Ichiru and Maria's train ride was uneventful. It took around eight hours to reach their stop, by which time the sun was steadily sinking towards the horizon. Some of the journey was simply spent napping; both of them were up unreasonably early for their schedules. Maria wasn't diurnal to begin with, and Ichiru was operating on the same oddball schedule all of the prefects at Cross Academy were.

"Maria?" Ichiru asked, quietly.

"Mm? What is it?" she cracked one eye, casting a questioning look towards Ichiru.

"Are you on prefect duty permanently?"

Maria stretched, arching her back and spreading her arms out. "Miss Kuran asked me to be, but I said I'd need to think about it. I want to be of use, but I'm not always the most reliable person."

"You 'want to be of use'?" Ichiru echoed, slightly perturbed.

She settled back down into a normal posture and nodded. "Yes, of course. It's a great honor to be useful to the Kuran heiress. I... mean, I would want to be helpful to her as a friend anyway, but it's still a big deal otherwise."

Ichiru frowned a little. "She's not taking advantage of you, is she?"

"Of course not. You know she could just make me do it if she wanted to," Maria replied, dismissively.

He folded his arms across his chest and made an irritated noise, like an annoyed cat.

"Ichiru, are you sure you're not just bothered that she's 'stealing' your brother?" Maria asked, tentatively.

Ichiru snorted and shook his head. "Nobody can 'steal' Zero. He's obnoxiously independent. It's strange to see him go from ignoring women aggressively to openly dating somebody who will definitely get him in trouble."

"Why do you think she'll get him in trouble?"

"Politics," he said.

"I don't think it's fair to hold her responsible for what people will do without being asked," Maria replied.

"Maybe not," he agreed, reluctantly. "What should I be expecting when we arrive?"

"A limo ride to our estate on the outskirts of the city. We'll do some visiting tonight, but our Yule feast isn't for a couple of days. I'll have relatives showing up for that time," Maria explained. "Some of my aunts are a little eccentric, but they're harmless, so please don't be alarmed. I _think_ that's about it..."

Ichiru nodded. A thought struck him then, and he opened his mouth to voice it before he'd fully processed it-- he brought himself up short with a click of teeth, but the abrupt termination caught Maria's attention.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Nothing," Ichiru said. "That is, I wondered if you might want to return with me before break is over to visit my family and our friends. We gather in the Cross Household with the Kuran, you see--"

Maria blinked. "You holiday with the Kuran?"

"Y...es," Ichiru said, uncertainly.

A tinge of pink spread across Maria's pale cheeks. She smiled and fixed her gaze on Ichiru's shoulder. "You want me to meet your family?"

"I don't think I should offer you less than you've offered me," Ichiru said.

"I accept your invitation," Maria said, happily.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Not wishing to fumble about with parking tonight, Yuuki had hired a driver to take care of their transportation. She felt the car roll to a halt at the destination Zero had given to her driver, but she couldn't see it. One of Zero's ties was looped around her head, blinding her pending the moment to reveal their secret destination. He guided her out of the car when the door was opened for them, and she held onto his arm as she went.

They walked down a stretch of sidewalk. A fragrant smell drifted in from ahead of them, eliciting a curious, audible sniffing from Yuuki.

"Smells lovely," she commented.

That seemed to be a trigger for Zero to bring them to a halt. He tugged the blindfold free and pocketed it. She opened her eyes, gazing out across the building in front of her. It was, Yuuki realized, a botanical garden. A part of the building was visibly an oversized greenhouse. She wrapped her arms around Zero's left arm, leaning her head against his shoulder and leading him towards the front doors.

"I don't remember talking a lot about botany with you," she remarked, her lips curled into a pleased smile.

"The book that you brought to the room in Kaien's house," Zero explained.

"You built your surprise around one book you saw me reading? You're really observant," Yuuki said.

"Well... it doesn't hurt that in the worst-case scenario, it would still be a nice place to see," Zero said.

They went inside.

Yuuki disentangled herself from Zero's arm, retreating to the more comfortable distance of holding his hand. She stroked his thumb absent-mindedly with her own and asked, "You like this sort of place, then?"

"Yes. Places like this are quiet," he said.

"Mhm. They smell nice, too. I bet that got a lot more important to you," she agreed.

Zero nodded. "There are a lot of places that smell bad now. This isn't one of them."

At the admissions counter, Yuuki fished her camera out of the slim bag that hung at her shoulder and asked the attendant to take a picture of them. She finished replacing the camera in her bag and held the developing photo loosely in her left hand while they proceeded into the entry hall of the exhibit spaces.

It was a long room, with a fountain running down its middle. Flowers and bushes were planted at regular intervals along segments of the fountain that were situated above the trickling water, and the outer gardens that lined the room showcased plants and flowers that were local and in season at this particular moment. At this particular point in time the most prominent showcase were several beds of tiny blue flowers that had been close to extinction not long ago.

"My family keeps a garden on the roof, when we have time," Zero said, when they reached the far end of the hall. He opened the door into the intersection of hallways leading to numerous other buildings within, urging Yuuki through and following closely behind her. "We tried a batch of medicinal plants, one year. Poppies, aloe, marigold."

"Harder to take care of than you thought?" Yuuki asked, flashing a knowing smile. The air in the intersection was heavier than in the entry garden; humidity and warmth flooded the room. It would've been uncomfortable in hotter weather, but during the winter it was more cozy than anything.

"More or less," he confirmed. "The marigold turned out okay."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Vedran lowered his binoculars and sighed impatiently, his breath fogging in the air. He was a short young man with a lean, muscular frame, a couple of years younger than the couple he was spying on. A shock of messy brown hair hung down into his eyes. A red-and-yellow sweater accompanied by faded and damaged jeans were joined with red shoes and a yellow scarf. A pair of matching mittens hung around his neck.

He replaced the binoculars in their case and switched to the radio at his belt, adjusting the bat that he rested casually against his shoulder. "This is **bo** _ring_. How long do I have to watch these dipshits? Over."

"Until they give you an excuse. That's what Majita said, over," a young woman's voice answered.

"You've gotta be kidding me. They went to a botanical garden and they're dressed to the fucking nines, Tomoko. They're **actually** just out on a date, over," Vedran shot back, disgusted.

"Please stick to callsigns, Max. What do you want me to tell you? Orders are orders, over," Tomoko said.

"Ugh. **Fine** , 'Killian'. And I don't know, I'm just done with this shit, I get enough of aloof attractive people when we get roped into party overwatch duty, over."

"Quit whining, idiot. If you're in that big a hurry just go tail them closer and see how they react," Tomoko snapped.

"You didn't say **over** , over." 

"You can fuck right off with your sass, Max. Over and out," she answered.

Rolling his eyes, Vedran secured his radio and headed in after the pair.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Yuuki pulled Zero from one plant to the other, explaining the origins and properties of them as they went. He looked a little lost for most of it; he understood properties better than the origins and preferred environment of each plant. Nevertheless, he was quite happy that things were winding down the way they were.

They were in the middle of the tropical greenhouse when the door opened and closed up along the loft that they had entered along, and Zero came to an abrupt halt.

"-- Huh? What's wrong?" Yuuki asked, blinking in surprise.

"Take a deep breath and smell," Zero said.

Yuuki followed his instructions and tensed. She slid the collapsed Artemis out of her bag cautiously, but didn't extend it just yet.

Vedran hadn't expected to be picked up as quickly as he was. He paused along the upper balcony, which overlooked the greater greenhouse Yuuki and Zero had been exploring. They were concealed by some of the larger trees that were growing in this section of the garden, but he had a perfectly good fix on their location. Even as itching for a fight as he was, he wasn't about to leap blind into that area.

He descended the sloping path that led through exhibits and down towards the pair of them, tilting his bat forward slightly so that it was primed for a quick one-handed swing. "And just what... does the leashed hunter think he's doing, roaming around without telling anybody?"

It was a taunt. Vedran knew the Kiryu by reputation, but not by temperament. Well, all of those **Dhampir** types had an aggressive streak a mile wide, everybody knew that. It couldn't have gotten better from changing.

Yuuki made an annoyed noise. To Vedran at least, _her_ being the aggressive one would be even better. It would make getting Artemis back a lot easier, and a lot less politically fraught.

"Date," Zero said, indifferently.

"What?" Vedran asked. He looked around. "A date to a fuckin' plant house? What kind of guy does that?"

"Me," Zero replied.

"... Yes, I **know** YOU!" Vedran growled, coming to a halt and tipping his bat forward to tap against the railing that separated visitors from the exhibit in front of him and the lower path where Yuuki and Zero stood. "The hell did you think I was asking?"

Zero shrugged.

There were times when Yuuki felt deeply troubled by Zero's minimalist communication style, but she could **smell** the frustration it was generating in this unpleasant little troll. She smiled pleasantly and said, "Zero is very thoughtful."

Vedran clicked his tongue irritably, glancing at Yuuki. "That'll happen, when the girl he's trying to impress can just put the thoughts in his head in the first place. How hard did you have to tug his leash to get a guy like that to pull something like this?"

"I didn't--" Yuuki began.

The smile that Zero's lips curved into was not the sweet thing that Yuuki received in fits and starts. It was almost a smirk, but it didn't quite have the unwarranted smugness to be called as such. If she had to describe it, it was the sort of thing she expected to see on the face of a predator about to devour its prey. He interrupted, "She's only tugged on my leash as much as I've asked her to."

"Z-zero!" Yuuki exclaimed, her face turning bright red. They'd done no such thing, but the implication was more than enough to be embarrassing.

But Vedran let out a great, barking laugh that was completely devoid of humor. He circled around the bend, and further down the slope. "Whatever. It's not like anything you say can be trusted when it comes to that."

There was something odd about the way Zero moved that Yuuki couldn't quite place her finger on, but even with the strangeness of his movement he drew Bloody Rose to hand almost before she could blink.

In reaction Vedran drew up his weapon in both hands. It seemed a counterintuitive stance, to grasp the metallic baseball bat as if he would swing it at bullets or bursts of energy-- but maybe that was the special property of the weapon. He tensed to charge, but before he could...

"This one disagrees," Zero said, holding Bloody Rose muzzle-down but in plain sight.

The muscles in his legs relaxed, but Vedran kept his bat in a two-handed grip. His eyes flicked to the point of contact between Zero and Bloody Rose. There was no blistering of skin, no crack-pop of the weapon rejecting its bearer. If he had been in any way truly compromised, that would be impossible, even for the subordinate vampire of one of the Kuran. "You've gotta be shitting me."

Yuuki stepped in between Zero and Vedran, Artemis telescoping out to its full length between her hands. "Zero just recovered from something really painful, we spent a lot of time getting ready for tonight, and we're not doing anything wrong. Leave, and let us have our date night in peace."

Vedran drew his lips back in what was almost a snarl, starting forward aggressively.

"One swing," Zero interjected, quickly.

"Zero, don't, please don't," Yuuki pleaded, but she didn't take her eyes off of Vedran.

"You can take one swing at me. After that, you leave," Zero said.

"Really? No joke?" Vedran asked, trying to edge around Yuuki. Her guard was surprisingly good, though-- and she had reach on him. He wasn't sure he could get around her without getting tagged.

"Uh huh," Zero replied, unfastening his corsage from suit and depositing it carefully at the top of Yuuki's purse. "Yuuki, stand back. Trust me."

Yuuki hated this. She gave ground to Vedran, but remained within a short step of being able to attack him.

Vedran advanced, standing just within swinging distance of Zero, adjusting his grip on his baseball bat. "You got some kind of deathwish, Kiryu? Even if _your_ bonded weapon will tolerate you, mine won't."

Zero shook his head.

"Then you just think you're better than me. Well! So! Fucking! LONG!" Vedran shouted, winding up and sweeping his bat forward in a crushing blow. His enemy was a "vampire without fangs" to begin with, so he knew not to angle for a risky high-value target like the head. The limbs wouldn't do the trick, so he had to try to land a center-mass blow powerful enough bash in his chest cavity.

With a barking laugh of triumph, he brought the bat down in a crushing blow that landed across Zero's chest. But... as soon as he did, he knew something wasn't quite right. This man, this compromised hunter hadn't even tried to get out of the way. The blow met something, something that Vedran couldn't see. It was as if his tissues gave for a moment and then hardened once the need for absorbing the sheer impact was done and the force that was left was all there was to contend with. The only damage to his clothes were a few incredibly subtle puncture marks that Vedran couldn't ascertain the cause of.

The baseball bat did not even begin burning his skin, nor did the blow meaningfully push Zero back. He used Bloody Rose to push the baseball bat back, but once it was clear of him he resumed a neutral posture.

"Go," Zero said.

"Fuck off! What the hell did you just do?!" Vedran demanded. He drew back a ways, and considered winding up for another blow. The thought died when his gaze flicked towards Yuuki, who was looking at him so fiercely that he knew she wouldn't defer to Kiryu a second time. As soon as he moved she would neutralize his ability to swing with Artemis and then... What would Kiryu do?

"Nothing. Disappear," Zero replied.

"Bullshit! Even **you** can't just tense your pecs and catch a bonded weapon on the chest like that!" he bit back, angrily.

"If you... don't leave right now, I'm going to shoot you in the knee," Zero said.

"And I'll stick you up one of these trees and leave you there," Yuuki growled, her eyes gleaming.

Vedran grimaced and backed off. " _Fine_. But I'm going to figure out the bullshit you just pulled, and when I doooooo--!?"

Yuuki lifted Vedran off the ground psychokinetically, floated him back to the upper balcony near the door, and deposited him there. She pointed at him, and then towards the door.

Realizing that he was in serious danger of **actually** being shot in the knee and left up a tree, and not quite certain that Kiryu _didn't_ have some means of invulnerability that he couldn't counteract just now, Vedran retreated hastily out the doors. They could hear him spitting and cursing to himself as he left.

Worriedly, Yuuki moved over to Zero and examined his chest. She was just about to start unbuttoning his shirt to check what had actually happened underneath his layers, when he stopped her and pointed at the hand that held Bloody Rose.

There was a vine running from the rear of the gun, up Zero's sleeve. Yuuki sucked in a sharp breath-- ohh, it would've been a real bad time if she had actually kept going. He must've covered most of his body underneath his clothes in vines, only intending to reveal them if he was struck someplace too externally visible to hide while still defending himself.

She collapsed Artemis and put it in her purse, retrieving the corsage Zero had left in her care and re-pinning it on his coat. Yuuki made a discontent, worried noise.

"I could've stopped him," she said.

"I know."

"Without letting him swing at you! I could've just... fwoosh!" Yuuki mimed throwing something towards the doors.

"I know, but President Arata wants to start trouble. That guy's prideful, he's not going to report back much of what just happened. He'll probably be too interested in beating me to get clever as well," Zero explained.

"So... you strung him along to prevent Arata from getting a useful result here?" Yuuki asked.

Zero nodded. He retracted Bloody Rose's vines back into the firearm, and replaced it in its holster.

"Okay... but still... I hate it when you put yourself in danger," Yuuki complained, lacing her fingers through Zero's and resuming their leisurely tour of the gardens.

"I didn't," he said.

"What? Yes you did," Yuuki replied, squeezing his hand. "It's like he said, even you have to worry about a weapon like that one."

"Verdan 'the Grand Slam' is the youngest of Arata's more prominent supporters, and he is powerful," Zero said. "All other things being equal, I'm a more powerful hunter than he is. Or more accurately... I was a more powerful hunter than he is. My goal was to minimize the useful data points he had to estimate me with. Which is to say..."

"Oh!" Yuuki interrupted, raising her free hand with an index finger extended. "Now that Zero is a vampire, they don't know how your abilities have changed, so they can't plan around it at all."

"Letting them learn more than I have to... that's more dangerous than risking a blow I know I can stop," Zero said.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Vedran stepped outside, flexing his hands. The impact hadn't been strictly rigid, but it had still been enough to leave him feeling as if his bones were still vibrating inside of his body. It gave his hands and arms a numb feeling that he didn't care for. Certainly, he'd be at a disadvantage in a fight if he had to get into one right now. He fumbled a moment at his radio.

"Killian, ya with me? Over."

"I'm here, Max. Find anything good? Over." Tomoko's voice crackled over the radio.

"Hell no. I'm done tailing those two. They're not going to give us an excuse," Vedran said.

He started heading down the road, and paused a moment at a corner to add, "Over."

"What did you do? Over," Tomoko replied.

"Fuck all, that's the problem, over," Vedran said.

"You've got to stop challenging people point-blank, over."

"Feh. Just try and stop me, over," Vedran snapped.

"Okay, over," Tomoko said.

"W-wait, not right now, over," Vedran replied, hastily.

"I didn't think so, over."

" **You** take a run at them, then, over," Vedran growled. He hooked through an alley and climbed up a service ladder to the roof, walked along the outer edge and hopped onto an adjacent rooftop.

Tomoko laughed into her receiver. "If I was going to at all, I wouldn't do it now. We're not going to get another intersection of vulnerability for a while, now. Over."

Vedran slowed down at the edge of his current roof. "What? Why? Over."

Tomoko sighed into her radio, producing an aggravating buzz of interference. She spoke slowly, as if addressing a child that she thought was particularly dim: "Kiryu isn't an opponent you tackle head on if you don't have to, and the Kuran heiress is with him. The only reason you aren't dead is because they didn't want you to be. If it's only one of us, the only chance at all is to take one out before moving on to the other. That's not possible now that they're completely certain they've been followed and watched. Over."

"Taking pity on me, huh," Vedran mumbled into the radio. He leapt to the adjacent building, holstered his radio, and then made another leap to a ledge barely in reach. Pulling himself up unsteadily and slipped inside, climbing up the clocktower. He found his partner huddled in a corner with a kerosene heater and a less-portable radio set than the one he was working with.

Tomoko was taller than Vedran by a couple of inches, and considerably better built. She had short, wavy blue-black hair that was mostly concealed by a blue knit beanie and was shamelessly wearing thick, red flannel pajamas. A leather harness with a combination of smooth stones and similarly-shaped lead objects was joined by a silvery sling that hung like a necklace around her neck. Her hands were covered in cat paw mittens, and she wore thick snow boots that really probably needed replacing.

"You _are_ pretty pitiful," she said, beginning to pack up her radio equipment into a case resting on the floor.

"Gimme a break, Tomoko," Vedran griped, pulling his own mittens -- forgotten until he saw Tomoko's -- back on.

"Did you at least learn anything useful?"

Vedran flopped back onto the ground, staring at the turning gears of the clocktower above. He shook his head, "Not really. Just that his bonded weapon is still listening to him."

"Mmm... that means she's not controlling him regularly," Tomoko observed, irritably.

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes," Tomoko confirmed. "Casus belli is important. The President doesn't want things done too below the table unless it's firmly deniable."

"Pfft. So you're saying what I did was worse than useless? Fuckin' figures," Vedran said, shutting his eyes and sighing irritably.

"I wouldn't say so. You identified an approach that isn't open to us," Tomoko said, snapping her case shut. "Let's pack it in for the night. You figure we can grab a bite to eat where they're going, and get a few more minutes of observation out of it?"

Vedran shook his head, humming a negative vocalization. "I told you before, they're dressed to the nines. I'm not changing into evening party clothes to fork over three hundred francs for five fancy appetizers and one fancy dessert. Let's just find a pub."

"Hmm..." Tomoko surveyed Vedran in dissatisfaction.

" **What**? You can't tell me tomato basil soup doesn't sound like heaven right now," Vedran shot back, springing abruptly to his feet. "Come on, let's get the hell out of this drafty clock tower. Oh... hey, did you ever check out their hotel room?"

Tomoko shook her head and led the way down the stairs. "Shortly after they arrived they put something down that made the windows turn reflective. I went up, jimmied the door to the opposite suite, and checked the balcony to see if I could cross there, but there's a ward. I don't know how they set up blood magic that thoroughly that quickly, but even if I could get an angle on the windows I don't think I could get a round through even if I went full bore."

"What the fuck is _that_ about? Kiryu's not a thaumaturge. Never heard anything about Kuran being one either," he said.

"There are rumors," Tomoko said, hopping the last few steps down and out the door into the street. "Rumors that the Queen is a formidable sorceress. The last King was, but we didn't think he passed it on before he died. It seems we were wrong, and the rumors are more credible than we thought."

"Shit," Vedran breathed.

"Mm."

"How mad do you suppose Arata will be?" he asked.

Tomoko shrugged. "Matija is the one that's close to him, not me. I don't think he's really 'temperamental' exactly. Not one to punish 'failure', just failure to obey."

They walked down the street in silence for several minutes.

Abruptly, Tomoko grabbed Vedran and pulled him into a 24-hour diner that caught her eye. "We're going here."

"What the f--"

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

The next few hours on the train passed in nervous anticipation, and soon enough Ichiru found himself accompanying a much more alert Maria to yet another limousine. The energy of their interactions had drifted from troubled to nervous, the troubles that had punctuated their conversation on intentions and boundaries not quite wiped away but pushed to the peripheries of thought and feeling.

They sat side-by-side on the same bench seat. Ichiru sipped at a citrus soda that Maria had poured two cups of just a moment ago, and continued to avoid her gaze.

Seated next to him, Maria was doing the same. She hadn't expected 'that' conversation to come so soon, and she had anticipated this result even less. Now, Ichiru wasn't merely something to long for at a distance, but a real person who was trying to meet her in the middle. Just like that she had started becoming more self-conscious of how close they were, and each brush of contact was needlessly exciting.

"Exactly... how do you want to introduce me?" Ichiru asked.

"Well..." Maria stared at her slippers. "If it's okay with you, then--"

"It's fine," he interrupted, hastily.

"-- I'm going to introduce you as my future husband," Maria followed up, before she could squelch the thought.

Ichiru choked on his drink, sputtering and covering his mouth.

Maria smiled, raising her head a little. "Of course I want to introduce you as my boyfriend, if that's... the sort of relationship we're going to have. Don't agree to things you haven't heard yet."

It took Ichiru a minute to recover, but when he did he didn't say anything. He just sighed, exasperatedly.

"That _is_ okay, isn't it?" Maria asked, now a little bit uncertain.

"Yes," Ichiru said, stiffly.

"Okay," Maria said, a bit downcast.

"What's wrong?"

"You sound... unhappy isn't the word. But not happy," Maria replied.

"It's new. And unfamiliar. And I don't know what I should do," Ichiru admitted.

"Would you mind a suggestion?"

Ichiru shook his head.

"Hold my hand," Maria said.

"Just like that?"

Maria nodded. "Uh huh."

Ichiru shrugged and reached across the limo to grab a rag from the minibar, wiping the citrus-y residue of his drink from his hand before moving to take Maria's. There was a fleeting moment of awkwardness in which he simply curled his hand around hers, but she parted her fingers and then hesitated. Rather than letting Maria think she misread the situation, Ichiru laced his fingers with hers.

Breathing a contented sigh, Maria shut her eyes.

The limousine wound its way up a long drive, the distant gleam of a house Ichiru knew would be sprawling presenting a warm glow on the dark horizon. Slowly, without realizing it, his grip began to tighten. It wasn't until they were nearly there that Maria winced, making Ichiru aware that he was doing it at all. He loosened his grip with an apologetic mumble.

"Are you scared?" Maria wondered, in surprise. It was as if they were watching a frightening film, and without realizing he had tensed at a particularly scary part.

Ichiru had zeroed in on a qi on the horizon. He hadn't been sure it was there, until they were nearly there. It was large, and it had a texture that he could only describe as similar to Maria's, albeit exponentially more intense. He'd never experienced it before himself-- Purebloods, yes, but not this one in specific.

"You didn't tell me there would be any Purebloods here," Ichiru said.

Maria shook her head. "Well, my great aunts do sometimes come, but they're irregular about it. If they're here, I didn't know they would be, either..."

"There's only one of them," Ichiru said.

"Are there a lot of others with her?"

"No," he answered.

"It's probably Shizuka, then. She's nice, but, um..." Maria hesitated.

Ichiru looked sharply towards Maria. "But what?"

Apologetically, Maria explained, "Shizuka acts more like an older sister than a distant aunt. And she likes to tease people a lot, so I'm sorry, but please brace yourself. I promise she's safe to be around, and her husband is always very nice."

"I'll... take your word for it," Ichiru said, beginning the process of forcibly relaxing herselft.

Maria nodded, squeezing Ichiru's hand. "Let's see... I'll tell you about who I'm expecting. My parents, well... they're not traditionalist at all. My mother's branch of the family has a history of illness, so they're not even viewed as desirable tools of political alliance. They're the least 'noble-like' of us. My papa, he's the sixth son of one of the families that has a major stake in rail expansion. His brothers sometimes show, and they're business-like but harmless. Um..."

She took a breath and continued, "If Great Aunt Izu shows up you'll know immediately because she brings a _lot_ of guests with her, and they're all ex-humans. She's one of the older Purebloods still around, and, er..."

"Is she dangerous?" Ichiru asked, perturbed by the hesitation.

"No! No, I mean, her temperament is fine, it's just..." Maria flushed a light pink and looked **anywhere** but at Ichiru. "Her whole household is basically a big sprawling collection of husbands and wives. The only reason my family isn't much bigger than it already is, is because it's harder for a woman to..."

"Oh," Ichiru said, dully. There was a brief delay while he put the pieces together. " **Oh**. You mean your family tree is mostly..."

Maria nodded. "Most of the Aristocratic families descended from the Hio clan are direct descendants of Great Aunt Izu. I have more cousins than I've ever met. I'm sorry, though. You asked me to tell you what to expect and I glossed over a lot of things that are normal to me."

"It's not a problem. I'll probably forget some things you need to know," Ichiru admitted, shrugging.

"We have a few days, but I'm really curious about that," Maria said.

"A little later tonight, if you don't mind," Ichiru replied. When Maria gave him an inquisitive look, he explained, "I'd like more private surroundings to tell you the characteristics of my family and the Kuran."

Maria glanced up towards the closed divider between the cab and seating area, but nodded. "I understand."

The limousine slowed to a halt in front of the house. It wasn't mountainous in the way that Berchtold was, but it was located up a hill overlooking the nearby city. Ordinarily Ichiru was used to Pureblood households that resembled castles or manors directly out of a horror film, but the Kurenai household wasn't anything like that at all. It had the looming grandeur, yes-- but it was styled like a log cabin, if sufficiently large that an onlooker would be forgiven for mistaking it for a country club or the central building of a ski resort.

The warm glow of exterior lights and lights burning in the windows offered a distinct impression of warmth, a stark contrast to the snowy rooftop and surrounding lawn.

It wasn't at all what Ichiru was expecting and, as Maria scooted away to exchange her slippers for shoes stowed beneath the seat, he finally decided that he had greatly misjudged what this was going to be like.

Cold and distant predators could not have lived in such a place. This was not a keep or castle. It was a home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vampires are a lot more sensitive to places that don't smell good than humans or hunters are.
> 
> You might be thinking, 'Aren't poppies usually illegal for people to grow?', and the answer to that in a contemporary setting would be yes. But this world is pretty different, and people growing plants that would be highly regulated in real life isn't terribly unusual. (A lot of the concepts of law are centered on a lower total population, localized governance, and an inability to tolerate bad actors. In the early post-Fall years, there was a lot of wild west stuff going on. Vampires and hunters made too much human exploitation by anyone but their own very difficult, since even one 'angry superpowered guy' showing up and just killing abusers was a very real possibility.)
> 
> Aaaand introducing: Vedran and Tomoko. They're two of President Arata's top agents, albeit the youngest of the total of four. In case it's not clear, Vedran's weapons is indeed a baseball bat. In terms of style, he's supposed to evoke a 'coarse jrpg protagonist' feel. Tomoko is the more serious one of the pair, but not so much that she's not a punky lady who goes on a surveillance mission in PJs. Also, yes, she did make the mistake of using a real name before telling Vedran to not use real names in there. She really shouldn't have named Majita on the radio.
> 
> If you're at all wondering, while the President isn't acting in complete good faith, most of his people are in fact just people. Vedran is kind of a fighty idiot in general, but 'Zero is sufficiently himself that he can use his bonded weapon' really is enough to sap some of his willingness to push this thing. If not for that, he might've been willing to take it farther than he already went, which was already pretty aggressive and dangerous.
> 
> Also, Yuuki will eventually get her way when it comes to taking care of dangerous problems. She can only put up with deferring judgment so much.
> 
> For the record, Vedran and Tomoko are the two of their little group that are closest to Yuuki and Zero in terms of experience, but there's a gap of innate power there that isn't very fair. As Tomoko says, if they're not at least a little clever about it, it's just not a good idea. I intend for Vedran and Tomoko to be growing alongside Yuuki and Zero, so they'll become more threatening as time goes by.
> 
> I waffled a bit on how to end this chapter, but decided that since Yuuki and Zero's date would mostly go fine after this point, it made more sense to linger on Ichiru and Maria. (We'll return to Yuuki and Zero soon, so don't worry.)  
> To be completely transparent, yes, Izu Hio is a woman so about free love that she managed to be the Genghis Khan of vampires.


	7. Lexicon & Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **CAUTION: May contain spoilers.**  
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> The Lexicon of Hearth and Fang is intended for consumption by up-to-date readers.
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> **CAUTION: May contain spoilers.**  
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided it was past due to add a Lexicon & Notes chapter for Hearth and Fang, although most of it is simply reiterated from before. Sorry for those who might have thought it was a conventional update!
> 
> I may re-organize this later. I'd intended to, but decided that I'd introduced enough new things that it was maybe good to go ahead and put reference material in the work itself.

* * *

**Achaea** : The bonded weapon of Kaien Cross. A sword that resembles an oversized modern military knife. Must be ritually bound for reasons presently unknown.

 **Alecto** : The bonded weapon of Shiro Kiryu. A chinese longsword.

 **Berchtold** : The town adjacent to Cross Academy. Named after one of the leaders of the mythological "Wild Hunt".

 **Bindings:** A type of blood magic that restricts the behavior or abilities of a subject or category of subjects. In addition to the bindings that fetter Rido, the protective measures around the Hunter's Association HQ would be considered a form of binding that harms if an unauthorized category (vampire) steps in without appropriate credentials (tattoo or alternatives).

 **Binding, of Mortality:** A binding that prevents Rido Kuran from leaving the grounds of the old Kuran estate without diminishing his regenerative abilities. Were he to do so, he could be killed even with an ordinary weapon.

 **Binding, of Plurality:** A binding that prevents Rido Kuran from generating familiars or otherwise existing in multiple places at once.

 **Bonded weapon** : A formal term for anti-vampire weapons.

 **Bonded weapon stages** : A concept indicating the development of a hunter’s mastery and relationship with their weapon. Stages begin at Noll and continue from Ett to Fyra. Stage Ett represents the rough power of Bloody Rose at the beginning of Hino Matsuri’s Vampire Knight, while Fyra represents such a cultivation of power that a hunter wielding it reliably outmatches a typical pureblood. A bonded weapon that rises to Stage Ett usually does not fall beneath it, but inherited bonded weapons rarely retain power exceeding Stage Ett for a new wielder.

 **Class, Dawn** : A subdivision of the Day Class that is officially permitted to intersect with the Night class. Mostly a special category reserved for Prefects, but might also be used for edgecases. 

**Class, Dusk** : A subdivision of the Night Class that is officially permitted to intersect with the Day class. Mostly a special category reserved for Prefects, but might also be used for edgecases. 

**Dhampir** : The name given to hunters by the Furnace Ancestor. Contemporary usage is as an epithet for throwback hunters like Kaien Cross, Ylva Kiryu, and Zero Kiryu. Akin to "vampire without fangs".

 **Geas** : A way of referring to a particularly powerful command issued by the authority of a Pureblood vampire.

 **Hemothaumaturgy** : A formal term for the magic performed by the Hunter’s Association and vampires. More informally, it would simply be called blood magic. It deals in phenomena induced using the power vested within blood. The origin of hemothaumaturgy is rooted in the nameless Pureblood at the heart of the Forge. As a result, the Hunter’s Association is more adept at hemothaumaturgy than vampires are.

 **Physio-spiritual** : A formal term for the overall processes of a hunter or vampiric body, which incorporate anomalous energies which are known but not easily studied.

 **Qi** : One of several terms for “vital force”, the power that defines the superior longevity and supernatural abilities of vampires and hunters. Chi, Ki, and simply Life Energy are often used interchangeably with this term, but Qi is the official term for formal situations. The "power" that a vampire derives from blood is Qi.

 **Thaumaturgical Tile** : An invention of Juri Kuran. Essentially, a portable and easy to use form of hemothaumaturgy created from specially baked clay tiles. Such fixtures usually require more static efforts.

 **Thrall** : A term for, variably, a human who has yet to fully transform into a Level D vampire, a human under a mental compulsion by a vampire, or otherwise simply a human who is serving a vampire. Sometimes called a Knock instead.

 **Tisiphone:** : The bonded weapon of Ylva Kiryu. A system of monofilament wires.

 **Weeping Larkspur** : The bonded weapon of Kaito Takamiya, occupying **Stage Tva**. In terms of design, it's a Bergmann-Bayard Model 1910. This wasn't defined in canon, and I decided it was appropriate for most of Toga's apprentices to favor guns-- Ichiru is the odd man out. It has a plant theme because I wanted it to spiritually relate to Bloody Rose. Apart from being able to put out corrosive clouds of poison, it has the ability to "plant" remotely-controlled instances of itself that function as turrets, which was used during Chapter 16 of Snowy Mountains and Ocean Roses to establish a secure perimeter around the Sun dorm.

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**Hunter’s Association Rank Structure**

President – Masami Arata

Vice President – Vacant

First Officer – Kaien Cross

Second Officer – Toga Yagari

Departmental Heads (Head of Assignment, Head of Armory, etc.)

Departmental Officers (Assignment Officers, Armory Officers, etc.)

Senior Associate

Associate

Junior Associate

The Hunter’s Association has a master-apprentice system for Junior Associates. In this case, the Junior Associate always falls dominantly under the authority of their teacher until they become a full-fledged Associate. It also follows that the teacher takes responsibility for their student’s actions; Toga is responsible for actions Zero takes under his authority.

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**Asai, Eiji** : A deceased Senior Associate of the Hunter’s Association. Like Ichiru Kiryu, he was sickly and weak compared to other hunters.

 **Arata, Masami** : The President of the Hunter’s Association. This character is unnamed in Hino Matsuri’s _Vampire Knight_ , which is inconvenient, so I gave him a name.

 **Claudia** : A vampire commoner, and member of the Night class at Cross Academy.

 **Frey** : A Junior Medical Officer within the Hunter’s Association. Trusted by Second Officer Yagari.

 **Kichirou** : A student of the Day class at Cross Academy. Though it's against the rules, he's involved with Claudia.

 **Kiryu, Shiro** : Zero and Ichiru’s father. His bonded weapon is a jian (chinese style of sword) called Alecto.

 **Kiryu, Ylva** : Zero and Ichiru’s mother. Her bonded weapon is a system of monofilament wires called Tisiphone.

 **Kuran, Kaname** : The younger of the Kuran siblings. Though he models himself visually after Kaien Cross, his motivations and intentions are unclear. Introduced in Chapter 1. It was important to my narrative for Yuuki’s brother to be younger and in a position of lesser explicit authority, but I’m aware that canonically, the son of Haruka and Juri was their firstborn. As for the Kuran Ancestor called Kaname, I don’t have immediate plans for him. So much of the original story hinges on his awakening, which is why it didn’t happen here.

 **Kuran, Rido** : The eldest son of the Kuran family. By birthright Rido would be considered the King of Vampires, but the gentler lineage of Haruka and Juri Kuran took power shortly after Rido fatally attacked their parents. The circumstances of the previous King and Queen’s deaths remain a mysterious and private affair; why Rido was imprisoned instead of executed is generally attributed to extreme misgivings about the killing of Purebloods, even a monster like Rido.

 **Kuran, Yuto** : The last Pureblood King, as well as Haruka, Juri, and Rido's father. It was by his decree that the Council of Elders was founded. Deceased.

 **Kurenai, Chiyoko** : Maria Kurenai's mother. A sickly Aristocrat, much like her daughter.

 **Kurenai, Enzo** : Maria Kurenai's father.

 **Lars** : Full name is allegedly Laurentius Nilsen. A human spy acting on the orders of the Council of Elders (Vampire Council). Bitten by Kaname when he was caught breaking into one of the Aido family's laboratories, and currently a Level D vampire.

 **Matija** : A Senior Officer in the Hunter's Association, and the eldest of Masami Arata's strongest supporters. Details unknown.

 **Norgaard, Elizabeth** : One of Rido Kuran’s attendants. A member of vampire aristocracy. Her power is the manipulation of water in liquid and gaseous states.

 **Norgaard, Torvald** : One of Rido Kuran’s attendants. A member of vampire aristocracy, and Elizabeth’s brother. His power is the manipulation of water in liquid and gaseous states.

 **Tomio** : Shizuka Hio's lover.

 **Tomoko** : The second youngest of Masami Arata's strongest supporters, and partner of Vedran. Wields a bonded weapon that takes the form of a sling.

 **Vedran** : Also referred to as "The Grand Slam". The youngest of Masami Arata's strongest supporters. Wields a bonded weapon that takes the form of a baseball bat. Partner of Tomoko.

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End file.
